10:22 AM
The Massachusetts FQHC Telehealth Consortium has been awarded a grant from the Federal Communications Commission to increase telemedicine capacity in community health centers statewide. The consortium is made up of 35 federally qualified health centers.
WHY IT MATTERS
The $3.1 million grant stems from the FCC's Connect Care Pilot Program, which is designed to help eligible provider organizations defray the costs of offering virtual care and study how the FCC's Universal Service Fund can help support the trend toward connected-care services.
The consortium plans to apply its grant funding toward increasing bandwidth at member health center sites and providing mobile hotspots for use by patients. These technology enhancements should allow for the provision of mental health services and substance use disorder treatment to more than 75,000 Massachusetts health center patients through the use of remote patient monitoring, video visits and other connected services.