The Rural Health Care Support Mechanism was created by Congress and
implemented by the FCC to ensure that health care providers serving
rural communities pay no more than their urban counterparts for telecommunications
services necessary for the provision of health care.
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Photo Courtesy of Progressive Farmer, July 2000.
Reprinted with permission.
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USAC administers the Rural Health Care Support Mechanism, which supports
monthly telecommunications charges, installation charges, and long-distance
Internet connection charges. The program began in 1998. Participating
rural health care providers must be either public or not-for-profit
entities in order to obtain support from the program. Eligible entities
include the following:
- Post-secondary educational institutions offering health care instruction,
teaching hospitals, and medical schools
- Community health centers or health centers providing care to migrants
- Local health departments or agencies
- Community mental health centers
- Not-for-profit hospitals
- Rural health clinics
- Consortia of health care providers consisting of one or more entities
described above
The burgeoning communications and information technologies now available
to health care providers are streamlining the process of information
sharing among health care practitioners. By helping to make telecommunications
available to even the smallest and most remote health care providers,
universal service support helps to make health care affordable, regardless
of where the health care is administered.
The Rural Health Care Support Mechanism has doubled the funding committed
- nearly $6.8 million - to eligible health care providers during the
second funding cycle (7/1/99 -6/30/00) from $3.4 million in the first
funding cycle (1/1/98 -6/30/99). Appendix B provides funding information
by state. The third program year, which began on July 1, 2000, is expected
to show another substantial increase in support for rural health care
providers due to changes in FCC rules, a simplified application process,
and USAC outreach efforts.
Eligible
health care providers from Alaska to the Virgin Islands have applied
for and received support for a variety of telecommunications services
necessary for the provision of health care. The most frequently selected
telecommunications service supported is the T-1 line, followed by Frame
Relay and ISDN.
Rural health care providers are using the supported telecommunications
services for a variety of patient services such as transmitting x-rays
from remote areas to be read by health care professionals and experts
in urban areas. Other uses include patient examination by doctors located
many miles from patients. Cameras can be attached to portable units
that feed live video to other locations. On monitors, doctors or nurses
can see and team-up to diagnose the ailment and prescribe treatment.
Both the doctor and patient save time and money.
