FCC Approves COVID-19 Telehealth Program Applications, Including Harlem’s Mount Sinai Hospital And Others

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau today approved an additional 26 funding applications for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program.  Health care providers in both urban and rural areas of the country will use this $11.19 million in funding to provide telehealth services during the coronavirus pandemic.  To date, the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program, which was authorized by the CARES Act, has funded 56 health care providers in 23 states for a total of $24.9 million in funding.

Below is a list of health care providers that were awarded funding:

• Ampala Health, in Yuba City, California, with 12 sites throughout Northern California was awarded $332,079 to expand its video telehealth services using connected devices at COVID-19 testing centers to limit both patient and provider exposure.
• Avenue 360 Health and Wellness, in Houston, Texas, was awarded $297,975 to provide video telemedicine services to low-income and vulnerable patients at risk for COVID-19 through mobile telehealth sites at public housing locations in the city of Houston and throughout Harris County.
• Brazos Valley Community Action Agency, Inc. dba HealthPoint, in College Station, Texas, was awarded $415,621 to provide remote patient monitoring devices and services for its rural, vulnerable, high-risk patient population.
• The Children’s Home of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio, was awarded $456,871 to expand its video telehealth consultations and remote monitoring programs serving its low-income and vulnerable patient population throughout the Greater Cincinnati area that has been displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Chinatown Service Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center with locations in Los Angeles, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, and Alhambra, California, was awarded $460,572 to implement telehealth to continue providing primary care, mental health, and dental services to low-income and vulnerable patient populations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Community Health Centers of Burlington, in Burlington, Vermont, was awarded $782,903 for its eight sites to provide telehealth visits through the use of connected devices designed to serve community residents, primarily low-income patients, who face barriers to access comprehensive primary care, psychiatry, behavioral health, and dental care services.
• Community Health Center of Lubbock, Inc., in Lubbock, Texas, was awarded $143,584 to expand its telehealth services to mitigate and limit exposure of patients and staff to COVID-19-positive patients receiving care while continuing to provide care to its vulnerable patients, including the elderly and chronically ill.
• Delaware Valley Community Health, Inc., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was awarded $504,880 to provide telehealth services to its patients who are predominantly vulnerable and at high-risk for COVID-19.
• El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center, Inc., dba El Rio Health, in Tucson, Arizona, with 12 sites throughout the community was awarded $444,462 to provide video telehealth services and remote patient monitoring of chronic diseases to ensure continued care for high-risk patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Fair Haven Community Health Clinic, in New Haven, Connecticut, was awarded $430,438 to provide its COVID-19 high-risk and vulnerable patient population with video and voice consults, and management of chronic conditions through patient-based Internet-connected remote monitoring.
• Greater Baden Medical Services, Inc., in Brandywine, Maryland, was awarded $537,747 to expand its video telehealth services and remote patient monitoring to continue to provide care to its low-income patients outside of emergency rooms overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.
• Health Access for All, Inc., dba Angeles Community Health Center, in Los Angeles, California, was awarded $442,376 to implement remote patient monitoring to care for patients who are most susceptible to COVID-19, including chronically ill and elderly patients.
• Holyoke Health Center, Inc., in Holyoke, Massachusetts, was awarded $668,335 to use telehealth to provide its high-risk and vulnerable patients with HIV infectious disease services and management, substance use disorder program treatment and adherence counseling, and nutrition, medication management, and oral health services, thereby reserving staff, equipment, and other onsite supplies specifically for patients with COVID-19 symptoms and conditions.
• Kennedy Krieger Children’s Hospital, Inc., in Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded $994,950 to expand its video telehealth and remote patient monitoring services to continue to provide care to vulnerable and high-risk children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities.
• Linn County Department of Health Services, in Albany, Oregon, was awarded $56,332 to implement telehealth services to provide medical services, mental health services, and maternal health services to its community, a third of which lives in rural and remote areas.
• MA FQHC Telehealth Consortium in Boston, Massachusetts, made up of 28 community health centers, was awarded $939,627 to maximize the health center providers and patients with access to telehealth via phone calls and videoconferencing, and use connected thermometers and pulse oximeters for remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients and connected blood pressure monitors for the monitoring of patients with hypertension.
• Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach in Bay City, Texas, was awarded $193,038 to provide telehealth services to treat patients with COVID-19 as well other infectious disease, including patients needing psychiatric services and other patients who have acute and chronic conditions.
• Mount Sinai Hospital in Harlem, New York, was awarded $862,950, to provide remote patient monitoring services to pediatric patients suffering from at least one pre-existing, chronic condition, such as asthma, cardiac disease, diabetes, or immunocompromised, who are dependent on ongoing monitoring of their condition to ensure that they remain in reasonable health.
• Navajo Nation Department of Health, in Window Rock, Arizona, was awarded $954,990 to provide home health care and remote monitoring services throughout the Navajo Nation to patients who are isolated and under shelter-in-place orders, including low-income, elderly and vulnerable and high-risk patients.
• Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc., dba OIC Family Medical Center, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was awarded $27,468 to expand its remote patient care program to provide connected devices to patients infected by COVID-19 or high-risk patients suffering from chronic conditions.
• Parker Health Group in Somerset, New Jersey, was awarded $28,838 to provide physical, occupational, and speech therapy through telehealth for elderly members of the community.
• Pomona Community Health Center, in Pomona, California, was awarded $209,933 to implement video and telephonic visits to provide medical, dental and behavioral health services to its COVID-19 high-risk and vulnerable community members who are either afraid to access services due to the risk of being infected or who have been advised to “stay at home” due to multiple at-risk health conditions.
• South Plains Rural Health Services, Inc., in Levelland, Texas, was awarded $109,365 to expand its telehealth services to provide continued care to COVID-19 patients as well as its vulnerable, low-income, uninsured and under-insured patients.
• Spectrum Health Services, Inc., in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was awarded $40,417 to implement telehealth services to allow providers to continue to care for its vulnerable patient population, which it characterized as the most impoverished patient base in Philadelphia.
• Wilmington Community Clinic with sites in Los Angeles, California and Wilmington, California, was awarded $232,291 to provide remote patient monitoring, video, and voice telehealth consultations to low-income and vulnerable patient populations in Los Angeles County, which has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Wright Center Medical Group, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, was awarded $629,051 to deploy in-home patient monitoring kits and expand its video telehealth services to provide remote care to its high-risk and vulnerable populations, including older adults, homeless individuals, and individuals in rural areas.

To learn more about the FCC’s COVID-19 Telehealth Program and view a complete list of funding recipients to date, visit https://www.fcc.gov/covid19telehealth.

To learn more about the FCC’s Keep Americans Connected Initiative, visit https://www.fcc.gov/keepamericansconnected.

Photo credits: Mount Sinai Hospital