The American Hospital Association and the National Association of ACOs were among the organizations voicing their support this summer for a proposed $100 million program to promote telehealth among low-income families and veterans, with a focus on services and applications delivered directly to patients outside healthcare facilities.
Announced in August, the Federal Communications Commission’s Connected Care Pilot Program would provide up to $5 million in funding to selected pilot projects that support broadband connectivity among patients and providers. The agency accepted public comments on its proposal through Sept. 10.
“Whether through remote patient monitoring technologies or mobile health applications that can be accessed on smartphones, tablets, or other connected devices, patients are seeing improved outcomes and significant cost savings through high-tech care that can be delivered directly to them regardless of where they are physically located,” the FCC wrote in its “Notice of Inquiry” on Aug. 3.
“It is critical that all Americans have access to these connected care services – whether enabled by existing broadband technologies or next-generation technologies, such as 5G. However, many low-income Americans, particularly those living in rural areas, lack access to affordable or adequate broadband and thus might not have the same opportunity to benefit from these and other advanced telehealth services.”
In its proposal, the agency cited several telehealth-related success stories:
- The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) partnered with a mobile broadband provider to remotely monitor diabetes patients in rural Mississippi via tablet computers. The pilot reportedly resulted in a marked decrease in blood glucose levels, early recognition of diabetes-related eye disease, and no diabetes-related hospitalizations or emergency room visits.
- The Veterans Health Administration conducted a three-year remote patient monitoring program involving more than 43,000 veterans with conditions including hypertension, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression, and PTSD. The program reportedly resulted in a 25 percent reduction in days of inpatient care and a 19 percent reduction in hospital admissions.
- Louisiana-based Ochsner Health System launched a remote monitoring pilot program in 2015 that enabled patients to manage their hypertension via a smart watch. Program participants were more than twice as successful as non-participants in achieving their target blood pressure levels and showed improvement in patient engagement levels.
While voicing its support for the pilot program, the American Hospital Association also encouraged the FCC to incentivize community-focused projects, rather than “one-off” projects driven by healthcare providers or telehealth companies. “By allowing rural healthcare providers to participate as a group, the Commission will encourage projects that have a wider geographic reach and thus are more likely to provide community-wide services,” said the AHA.
To learn more about the FCC’s proposed Connected Care Pilot Program, go to https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-seeks-comment-launching-connected-care-pilot-program