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Law360 (June 12, 2020, 4:32 PM EDT) -- The House Energy and Commerce Committee asked the FCC on Friday for more information about the disbursement of funds appropriated for telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically regarding which health care providers haven't yet received funding to serve tribal lands or to obtain telehealth equipment.
Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., asked FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a letter for "additional transparency" on where the $200 million appropriated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act for telehealth services was and was not going.
The FCC currently posts weekly updates of funding awards, according to the letter, and has given out about $104 million as part of the commission's COVID-19 Telehealth Program. But the FCC does not list the status of pending requests for funds.
The committee said it heard reports of health care providers in tribal lands facing issues obtaining CARES Act funding, and providers not being able to get financing for "important" telehealth equipment the committee believed "should be covered under the law."
"Given the reports indicating that close to half of all doctors are using telehealth services to treat patients during the pandemic, Congressional oversight of the funding awards is critical, and the FCC must provide more public transparency of its decisions," the letter read.
The committee is specifically asking the commission to provide a docket that includes all pending applications the FCC received for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, a list of applications that have been approved, the dates in which funds were actually disbursed, and a summary of uses or devices that were not approved for reimbursement.
The letter requested that the FCC post the materials on their website by next Friday, and update the materials on a weekly basis.
In late March, the commission said it would be working as quickly as possible to distribute the CARES Act funds amid the coronavirus pandemic — which has expanded telehealth offerings in the U.S. and put a spotlight on the virtual system for potential future use beyond the health crisis.
Money through the COVID-19 Telehealth Program will be available until the end of the pandemic or until the funds have been exhausted, the commission said at the time.
The program funds can be spent on broadband connections for patients, along with at-home devices that assist with monitoring programs. Providers who apply for the funds can use the cash to treat active COVID-19 cases and to prevent and prepare for an outbreak of the disease.
The FCC in a statement Friday said it was looking "forward to reviewing the letter" but noted it has been "administering this program in a transparent manner."
"We have been providing weekly announcements of all of the funding applications that have been approved along with the details of those approved telehealth projects provided by the applicants. Moreover, the Commission's website contains a list of all of the approved applications sorted by state," according to the statement. "Going forward, our focus has been and must continue to be on processing all of the applications quickly and carefully, an effort that could be undercut if we turn our attention to creating a new system for posting pending applications."
The Energy and Commerce Committee declined to provide further comment.
--Additional reporting by Kelcee Griffis, Stephen Cooper, Christopher Cole and Kevin Stawicki. Editing by Amy Rowe.
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