USDA Increases Funds for Rural Telehealth Programs

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) increased funding for telehealth in rural locations around the United States. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the USDA Rural Development’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program was awarded $23.4 million in additional funding for 75 projects in 31 states, according to Healthcare IT News. The grants can be used to purchase telemedicine educational tools, equipment and telehealth services for rural areas. The program expansion announcement was made on National Rural Health Day (Nov. 20), highlighting rural health progress made by the private sector, academia and rural health offices.

“Rural communities often lack access to specialized medical care or advanced educational opportunity necessary for stronger rural economies,” Vilsack said in a statement. “Rural Americans deserve the same opportunities for education and medical care as metropolitan-area residents, and these funds will make that happen.”

When the USDA Rural Development’s Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program was implemented in 2009, the USDA has provided more than $213 million in grants and loans to 634 rural areas to create distance learning and telemedicine projects nationwide, according to Healthcare IT News. The USDA program has been focused heavily in providing funding care in rural Arkansas. Baptist Health Care in Little Rock, Ark., has received two separate grants from the USDA to set up a critical care network and create an interoperable system between six separate medical centers. The equipment purchased through the grants allows doctors and medical specialist to make virtual rounds throughout the hospital, making it easier to reach patients quicker and more efficiently.

The North Slope Borough region in Alaska hopes to use its grant of about $420,000 to make similar improvements to those made in Little Rock. The region plans to purchase video equipment to connect six Native Alaskan Clinics, four end-user sites and the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital to increase emergency care. This equipment will also help with routine examinations and behavioral health and specialty programs, according to Healthcare IT News.

The grant also supports training rural emergency responders, which Alabama Fire College and Personnel Standards Commission plans to do with their $453,604 allocation. Additionally, it will allow for teleconferencing and telehealth equipment to be installed in five Baptist Healthcare System Inc. facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee.

According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Health Resources and Services Administration, which make up a Rural Health Information Technology task force, the Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grand Program is one of two key USDA rural development programs that will help expand the IT infrastructure. The other is the Community Facilities Program, which will provide direct loans and grants for community facilities in the rural areas and may help with the costs of electronic health record program implementation for the health care providers located in rural regions.