Carr, O'Rielly Back Pai's Proposed Rural Healthcare USF Cap Hike, Inflation Adjustments
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposed rural healthcare USF hike got majority support from Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly. "The Rural Health Care program is running into a funding shortfall, ... creating uncertainty for participating providers and patients alike," Carr…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
said Wednesday. He said Pai's draft order "would address the shortfall and provide longer-term certainty by adjusting the annual funding cap for inflation. This decision has my support, and I have voted to approve the item.” He said the extra funding would help increase access to telemedicine, including through a South Dakota skilled nursing facility he toured recently that uses broadband connections. O'Rielly also voted to approve the item, an aide told us Thursday. An FCC release trumpeted the majority in favor of the item and the backing of lawmakers and others. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's office is reviewing the item, an aide told us: "We expect to vote soon when our review is complete.” Pai said his draft order would immediately increase the RHC annual budget cap 43 percent to $571 million to reflect inflation since 1997, and going forward would index the program for inflation and allow unused funds from prior years to be carried forward to future years (see 1806060057). The chairman's plan will boost rural healthcare provider connectivity, even "more so in Alaska given the extreme conditions of distance and isolation" the state's rural communities face, Alaska Communications CEO Anand Vadapalli wrote Pai this week in docket 17-310.