Wireline Bureau Releases Interim Report on COVID-19 Telehealth, Connected Care Programs
The COVID-19 telehealth program has been "effective in helping patients access health care during the pandemic" and "improved the quality of the patient experience," said an interim FCC Wireline Bureau report on the program Tuesday. The bureau also found that…
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early reports on the Connected Care Pilot program suggest that participating providers are "able to serve more patients via telehealth than before they began participating." Some providers participating in the pilot program reported initial challenges of digital literacy, the report said. The bureau concluded the COVID-19 telehealth program "appears to have generally been more attractive to applicants" than the pilot program because it provided "a more expansive definition of eligible services" and 100% reimbursement for eligible devices and services. It also said pilot program participants "underestimated the difficulty in implementing telehealth services in certain areas by not accounting for the resources necessary to educate patients who were unfamiliar with telehealth on how to use it."