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FCC Grant for $1.1M Goes to Expand Connecticut Telehealth

Community Health Center Inc. has received the grant from the Federal Communications Commission to expand telehealth services for low-income and veteran patients in Connecticut, the Middletown-based provider announced.

Doctor conducts telehealth appointment on a laptop
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(TNS) — Community Health Center, Inc. has received a $1.1 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission to expand telehealth services for low-income and veteran patients in Connecticut, the Middletown-based provider announced.

The funding comes weeks after CHC received $2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase telehealth access.

Mark Masselli, CHC’s CEO, said the grants represent the latest sign that virtual visits, which have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, are here to stay.

“We’ve been banging away for 10 or 15 years on telehealth as something we should do, and [the pandemic] was a force multiplier,” Masselli said. “Not every visit is prime for telehealth, but almost every behavioral health visit is prime for telehealth, and probably 30% of medical visits are prime for telehealth.”

CHC, which operates about 30 locations across Connecticut that serve mostly low-income residents, will use the HHS grant money to expand virtual services for people with diagnosed behavioral health disorders. The FCC award, Masselli said, is targeted toward improving infrastructure, including broadband connections, in schools and homeless shelters, with a particular focus on homeless veterans.

As an example of how expanded telehealth might work, Masselli said CHC might provide a homeless person with a prepaid data plan so that person can access healthcare even after leaving a shelter.

“This does not take away the in-person care that needs to be delivered,” Masselli said. “But there are many people for whom this is the way they’d like to access it, for a number of reasons.”

The FCC grant is one of 16 to be distributed nationwide as part of a fourth round of funding from the agency’s Connected Care Pilot Program. Overall, the FCC is funding 107 similar projects across 40 states.

“Telehealth has assumed an increasingly critical role in health care delivery, enabling patients to access health care services without needing to visit a health care provider’s medical office,” the FCC said in a statement.

Telehealth has become far more common during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing patients to see physicians without risk of coronavirus exposure. Proponents say virtual visits can play a large role in medicine even after the pandemic, making care more accessible for people who can’t easily take time off work or travel long distances for appointments.

Though some advocates worry what telehealth means for patients without access to technology or the skills to effectively use it, Masselli and others argue that telehealth can be valuable as a supplement to traditional medicine, including for those in lower-income brackets.

“I think of our population, and they’re cost conscious,” Masselli said. “They work hourly wages, so if you have them take two buses to get to us, it’s really half a day of lost work.”

Gov. Ned Lamont signed an executive order in spring 2020 enabling wider telehealth services, and last May the state legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill allowing an expanded use of telehealth and prohibiting insurers from offering lower reimbursement rates for virtual visits.

In addition to CHC, other Connecticut providers, including the state’s largest hospital systems, have also expressed a commitment to expanded telehealth. At one point last year, Hartford HealthCare was conducting 25,000 virtual visits a month, particularly for mental health, addiction and other behavioral health issues. Officials at most major hospitals have pledged those services will continue long past the pandemic.

© 2022 Hartford Courant. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.