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The $200 million program, funded by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, is designed to help eligible practices, hospitals, and other organizations provide and maintain telemedicine/telepsychiatry services so they can continue to provide care during the COVID-19 pandemic, while many states are still enforcing stay-at-home orders. Details about the program are posted in an FAQ on the FCC website.
Funding is limited to nonprofit and public eligible health care centers and systems that fall within the following eight categories:
- Postsecondary educational institutions offering health care instruction such as teaching hospitals and medical schools
- Community health centers or health centers providing health care to migrants
- Local health departments or agencies
- Community mental health centers
- Not-for-profit hospitals
- Rural health clinics
- Skilled nursing facilities
- Consortia of health care centers consisting of one or more entities falling into the first seven categories
Eligible entities may use the money to offset costs associated with a range of services, outlined in the FAQ, that are essential to telehealth. Eligible beneficiaries can submit applications for funding here; applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, with no current deadline.
Potential beneficiaries can determine whether they are eligible by filing an FCC Form 460 through My Portal on the webpage of the Universal Service Administration Co., an independent nonprofit designated by the FCC to administer FCC programs. Potential beneficiaries can submit applications for funding while their eligibility determinations are pending.
APA members with questions about recent telepsychiatry policy changes should contact the Practice Management Help Line at practicemanagement@psych.org.
(Image: iStock/izusek)
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