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The Federal Communications Commission’s Connected Care Pilot Program is “a welcome and critical step” toward advancing the progress of connected care, and the FCC should “adopt rules that will implement the Pilot Program as soon as possible,” the AHA said in comments submitted last week on the commission’s notice of proposed rulemaking.
 
In order to be successful, AHA said the Pilot Program should be grounded in core principles, including that its rules should maximize eligibility to ensure a truly diverse applicant pool, while establishing at least a partial preference for health care providers that serve rural communities. In addition AHA said the FCC should streamline the Program’s application process, post-application reporting requirements and performance evaluation metrics to minimize any additional administrative burdens, especially for providers with limited resources.
 
The AHA shared a number of specific recommendations, including to expand program eligibility to include both urban and rural health care providers and for-profit hospitals; provide applicants with sufficient latitude to design their connected care proposals in a manner best suited to their patients; allow program participants to report data on an aggregated basis; and retain flexibility to fund approved projects in varying amounts.
 
The FCC in July voted unanimously to approve a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish the $100 million pilot program.