Senators Urge FCC Delay Vote on Rural Health Care Program Revamp Order
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., led a bipartisan letter Tuesday with 11 other senators urging the FCC to delay its planned Thursday vote on a rural telehealth report and order that would in part revamp the USF…
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Rural Health Care Program's payment distribution and create a database of payment rates based on geography (see 1907120003). Rural healthcare providers (RHCPs) and the telecom companies that service them have also sought a vote delay or revision of the FCC proposal (see 1907230005). “The proposal neither provides sufficient guidance to applicants nor addresses several of the” existing RHCPs' “key issues, and will ultimately lead to increased confusion and funding delays for rural health care applicants and providers,” the lawmakers wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The other senators signing the letter were 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bennet of Colorado; Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; Angus King, I-Maine; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Tom Udall, D-N.M. The existing “lack of sufficient funding” for the RHC program, “combined with a lack of program rules concerning its allocation, has led to substantial delays for rural health care providers seeking to increase their telemedicine capabilities,” the senators said. The proposal “does not address the need for more funding, set forth the methodology for calculating the rural and urban rates, nor provide adequate maps to determine the rural area boundaries needed to determine pricing. Instead, it delegates rate-setting to” the Universal Service Administrative Co., “an entity that does not have relevant subject matter expertise.”