The FCC Wireline Competition Bureau has completed application approvals for the $200 million mandated by the CARES Act, which was signed into law in March. Twenty-five FCC telehealth grants totaling $10.73 million were announced in this funding round, which brought the number of approvals to 539 projects.
The only states with more than one approval in the last announcement are California with three and Oregon with two. Grants were made to one entity in each of 21 states and Guam.
The funding is aimed at enabling telehealth to play a bigger role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the final awards reached the $1 million mark:
- OCHIN (Portland, Ore.) was awarded $1 million for laptop computers, smartphones, mobile hotspots, remote monitoring devices, and videoconferencing software to enhance the emergency telehealth response for low-income and underserved patients served by 54 health care providers across 12 states. The money will support telehealth technical assistance, customized emergency workflows for virtual treatment of patients with and without COVID-19, procurement and configuration of connected devices, network design support and virtual visit software installation.
- California Telehealth Network (Sacramento) was awarded $1 million for laptop computers, smartphones, mobile hotspots, a videoconferencing software license, and remote monitoring devices to offer member hospitals telehealth technical assistance, customized emergency workflows for virtual treatment, network devices and network design support, virtual visit software, and the ability to expand telehealth training and support for rural and medically underserved clinics and hospitals in California.
Unlike with most of the other announcements of FCC telehealth grants, no minuscule approvals were announced. The smallest approval was to Recovery Consultants of Atlanta, in Decatur, GA. The firm was awarded $26,733 for mobile hotspots, smartphones, laptops, and a telehealth platform to provide medical and behavioral health services.
The final approval announcement was not nearly as large as most of the others. Last week, for instance, the FCC announced 70 approvals for $31.63 million in funding. That brought the total to $189.27 million.
