The Government Accountability Office (GAO) needs to study FCC handling of a $400 million telemedicine program, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a letter sent recently to the GAO. Despite a recently established FCC telehealth pilot program aimed at using broadband, more needs to be done, Rockefeller told GAO. “I am concerned that the agency’s programs have not lived up to their statutory potential,” he said in his letter to Acting Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, a copy of which we obtained. With broadband infrastructure costs soaring, public policymakers “must find ways to harness the power of telemedicine to provide quality and affordable care” to residents in rural areas, the letter said. A review of FCC rural health care policies could provide a useful tool for policymakers interested in improving the programs, the letter said. Rockefeller asked to be a “co-requestor” for a review GAO already has underway examining the FCC’s rural health care programs. The FCC established the $417 million rural health care program to increase patient access to care using telemedicine and electronic health records. The program is designed to ensure that rural health care providers pay no more than their urban counterparts for telecommunications services needed to provide health care. The commission established a pilot program, administered by the Universal Service Administrative Co., to help build out broadband telehealth projects. The commission announced in April that it had approval to spend $46 million to build five telehealth networks linking hospitals in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, and a separate project in Alaska. There are 67 projects nationwide eligible to receive funding for networks serving 6,000 health care facilities in 42 states and three U.S. territories. Of the 67, the FCC reported in an April statement that 29 had selected vendors to build out networks. Some of the projects have run into difficulty and petitioned the commission for permission to merge. The most recent request came in August, when the commission issued an order granting a request from two participants to merge their projects. Rockefeller said in his letter to the GAO he hopes to identify ways to “further develop the FCC’s present efforts.” “I believe a review of the FCC’s rural health care policies by [GAO] would provide a useful tool for policymakers interested in improving these vital programs.”

The FCC’s “reform play book” includes reviews of data, internal processes and public communication, top FCC staffers told reporters Wednesday. The status update occurred one day before Chairman Julius Genachowski’s first appearance at an oversight hearing by the House Commerce Committee, and two days before the commission is set to complete an internal data review. “We have a chairman here who knows this stuff, cares about this stuff, and has charged us with transforming the agency into something that is going to be amazing,” said Mary Beth Richards, special counsel to the chairman on FCC reform.

Donald Evans, counsel to Corr Wireless, met with aides to Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn to discuss universal service issues of interest to competitive eligible telecommunications carriers. “I emphasized the importance of those funds to smaller CETCs in support of their universal service obligations, especially in light of the limiting effect of the interim cap on funds available for this purpose, and the benefits of dealing with this appeal discretely and apart from the broader issues of USF reform,” Evans said.

Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra told an FCC broadband workshop on telemedicine Tuesday that better use of broadband is critical to President Barrack Obama’s focus on universal health care and health care reform. “We cannot move forward in advancing our nation’s healthcare reform goals without the appropriate use of technology in health care and telemedicine is a key component,” Chopra said. “I say that as the president’s senior advisor on technology matters. I say it because I've seen it first hand.”

Carriers would have to pay 12.3 percent of their long-distance revenue to the Universal Service Fund in the fourth quarter, if the FCC adopts the contribution factor proposed Monday. The figure is 0.6 percentage points less than this quarter’s 12.9 percent, a record-setting figure that elicited alarm and outrage (CD July 31 p5) from state consumer advocates and carriers advocating USF reform. The Universal Service Administrative Co. said it would need to collect $1.86 billion from carriers in Q4. To set the carrier “contribution factor,” the commission divides the amount needed by projected carrier revenue. Of $2 billion in anticipated USF support, about $1.15 billion is projected for the rural high-cost program, $542.2 million for the E-rate program, $261.7 million for low-income support and $53.4 million for the rural health-care program.

Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra told an FCC broadband workshop on telemedicine Tuesday that better use of broadband is critical to President Barrack Obama’s focus on universal health care and health care reform. “We cannot move forward in advancing our nation’s healthcare reform goals without the appropriate use of technology in health care and telemedicine is a key component,” Chopra said. “I say that as the president’s senior advisor on technology matters. I say it because I've seen it first hand.”

Policymakers should set up a new Universal Service Fund program to provide broadband to low-income consumers, said the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. In a statement Monday about state regulators’ Lifeline Awareness Week (CD Sept 11 p15), OPASTCO President John Rose said poverty is a major reason that some Americans lack broadband. “A successful national broadband policy must recognize the need to connect low-income consumers and provide a mandate to ensure that everyone everywhere receives broadband services and the benefits these services provide.”

GENEVA -- New institutions may be needed to manage national and regional Internet Governance Forum-type events cropping up around the world, participants said at a European discussion that runs through Tuesday. Council of Europe countries may provide resources to further pan-European Internet governance discussions, an official said.

There have been some changes in China’s media and information control system, but access is still difficult and more changes are needed, witnesses said during a hearing by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Thursday. The Chinese government is worried about the increasing use of online tools like Twitter and is expected to monitor content even more closely, they said. Established in 2000, the commission has twelve members appointed by Congressional leaders from both parties.

Interconnected VoIP providers should be required to pay state universal service fees, said states and rural wireline carriers in comments filed at the FCC Wednesday on a petition by the Nebraska Public Service Commission and Kansas Corporation Commission (CD Sept 4 p6). But Verizon and Google fought the concept of VoIP having an intrastate component subject to state jurisdiction. Vonage and some other VoIP providers didn’t object to paying state USF, but said the FCC must open a separate rulemaking first.