The pressures of COVID-19 are forcing us to rely on telehealth now more than ever. Companies and care facilities of all kinds have had to adapt their practices to support new telehealth solutions, but many of these solutions are costly and out of reach for struggling facilities.

To help, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently adopted a $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program to aid healthcare facilities in providing better telehealth services to their patients.

Who’s Eligible?

The program is open to non-profit and public healthcare providers who meet certain criteria defined in the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Generally, funding will be available to the following facilities:

• Not-for-profit hospitals and health clinics
• Local health departments
• Senior living centers and community health centers
• Rural and non-rural health clinics
• Skilled nursing facilities

Note that this is not an exhaustive list, and all non-profit or public healthcare clinics are welcome to apply to the program. However, all applicants will need to receive an eligibility assessment from the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) before being accepted.

Which Services and Devices Are Covered?

The program will help providers pay for devices and services that are necessary for providing remote health services to patients in response to the COVID-19 outbreak such as:

• Health monitoring tools such as pulse oximeters
• Information and connectivity services, including Medical Grade Wi-Fi and voice services
• Connected devices, including tablets and smartphones that enable connected care at home

All devices must be digitally-connected and integral to patient care to be considered.

Can I Improve My Odds of Getting Approved?

Although the FCC will make the final call on all applications, they’ll be using certain criteria to assess each applicant’s needs:

• Local conditions and severity of COVID-19 impacts in the region
• The amount of funding allocated for vulnerable or high-risk patients
• The goals, objectives, and timeline of each applicant’s funding strategy
• The geographic size of each region and its existing healthcare infrastructure

Overall, these regulations are designed to ensure that support is given to the areas hit hardest by the pandemic, as well as to facilities that require telehealth services to protect high-risk patients.

How Does Reimbursement Work?

Note that the COVID-19 Telehealth Program isn’t a grant. Applicants accepted to the program will need to provide invoices and other documentation for each of the products or services that they purchase. In addition, they may need to adhere to other FCC reporting requirements as noted in the program guidelines.

How Do I Start?

Healthcare facilities interested in the reimbursement program can’t afford to wait. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to get started:

• Register for an FCC Registration Number (FRN) in the Commission’s Registration System
• Receive your eligibility determination from the USAC’s online portal
• Register with the U.S. government’s System for Award Management portal
• Submit your funding application on the FCC’s program website

If you’re a senior living facility who needs help navigating your application, contact us at HealthSignals and we’ll be happy to walk you through the details.

Even though the days of the common house call are long gone, for many patients traveling to see a doctor can be a challenge. Seniors face personal mobility issues and transportation hurdles that often prevent them from getting the care they need.

TeleHealth is an exciting opportunity for an aging population to receive adequate care without the worry of how they’ll travel to the doctor’s office. Senior living communities who integrate TeleHealth into their facilities offer their residents a valuable resource that keeps them active and engaged.

What is TeleHealth?

Sometimes referred to as telemedicine or digital health, TeleHealth uses a number of technologies and devices to connect patients with their healthcare providers. Remote appointments, biofeedback sensors, and other connected devices are used for sharing information between patients and physicians who can now remotely share their expertise.

The Benefits of TeleHealth

One of the biggest contributors to rising healthcare costs is the increased rates hospitals and doctors charge for visits and tests at their facilities. TeleHealth solutions can reduce costs while enhancing health outcomes by:

• Improving management of chronic diseases.
• Sharing health professional staffing.
• Reducing travel times.
• Reducing the number and length of hospital stays.

It should come as no surprise that TeleHealth is a rapidly growing component of healthcare in the U.S., with older adults enthusiastically embracing wearables and mobile health applications to monitor their weight, diet, exercise, blood glucose, sleep patterns, blood pressure, chronic pain, and more. Digital healthcare lets them stay connected to support mechanisms while living more productive, enjoyable lives.

TeleHealth and Senior Living

TeleHealth technologies will become a way of life for millions of baby boomers, 10,000 of whom are turning 65 every single day. Figuring out how to support their healthcare needs is crucial because they are managing more chronic conditions such as diabetes. And while one in four Americans deals with multiple chronic conditions that limit their daily activities, the number rises to three in four Americans aged 65 and older.

TeleHealth platforms encompass a wide variety of technologies:

• Mobile devices
• Audio-video linkups
• Wearable devices
• Connected devices

With most trips or transfers to hospitals unnecessary, TeleHealth solutions in your senior living facility offer residents improved safety, care, comfort, and convenience they may not find elsewhere. It’s especially attractive to seniors who are living in areas that aren’t close to medical facilities or hospitals.

With all these benefits, why then are so few senior living facilities using a TeleHealth platform to connect residents to outside healthcare services? Much of it has come down to healthcare plans not covering the services for independent living or assisted living communities. The good news is that as of 2020, Medicare Advantage plans will be permitted to cover TeleHealth Services delivered to senior living facilities.

Is Your Facility Ready?

TeleHealth programs need proper broadband to handle the service. Without it, you face the risk of dropped conferences, out-of-sync audio, and frozen video. Four factors define the high-quality connectivity needed: provider and equipment reliability, security, sufficient speed, and affordability.

Senior living and continuing care retirement communities should expect to see TeleHealth become much more prominent in the coming years. Crucial to its success will be consistent, high-quality connectivity.

HealthSignals’ Medical Grade Wi-Fi® is a future proof solution that offers reliable and secure campus wide WiFi and cellular coverage and ensures your residents have 24/7 access to top medical care at their fingertips.

Contact HealthSignals today to learn more.

It’s well known that medical facilities of all kinds are becoming increasingly digital. From single-doctor offices to large clinics, pharmacies, and hospitals, as well as continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) and long-term post-acute care (LTPAC) facilities, everyone is deploying wired and wireless networks to serve doctors and nurses, support staff, business users, residents, visitors, and first responders.

The Wi-Fi services that have become ubiquitous in coffee shops, airports, hotels, and even grocery stores have come to be expected in medical facilities as well, and facilities are responding by making significant Wi-Fi investments.

However, medical facilities have special wireless-connectivity needs that most other businesses don’t. Consider:

With the increasing use of wireless connectivity by doctors, nurses, staff, and even medical devices, Wi-Fi service must offer 100% coverage and near-100% reliability.

Medical records are increasingly electronic and shared among multiple devices, both wired and wireless, in many medical facilities. Wi-Fi systems in these facilities must meet stringent HIPAA security standards to protect patient medical information.

For these reasons and more, consumer or commercial-grade Wi-Fi just won’t cut it in medical, senior living or continuing care facilities.

Medical-Grade Wi-Fi^®

To meet these more-demanding requirements, HealthSignals designs and implements Medical Grade Wi-Fi® systems for CCRCs, ALFs, SNFs and LTPAC facilities. These systems are engineered for the diverse needs of senior-care facilities. Medical-grade Wi-Fi brings these facilities many advantages, such as:

• Better coverage: Whereas a Wi-Fi system for an office, factory, or warehouse might provide 95% coverage of the floor space, Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® guarantees 100% coverage over every square inch of your facility, with no dead spots and no dropouts as a mobile device moves from one area of the building to another.
• Higher signal strength: Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® signals are 56% stronger than enterprise-grade signals, ensuring robust connectivity throughout the facility.
• Greater capacity: Not only does a Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® system enable more devices to connect, but it also enables prioritization of mission-critical devices and users to ensure they always get access no matter how many devices are competing with it.
• Tighter security: Medical-grade Wi-Fi^® meets the highest standards of security for comprehensive HIPAA compliance.
  Better reliability: A medical facility cannot tolerate downtime in its wireless network. HealthSignals’ Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® systems are engineered for redundancy, so that no single failure can compromise connectivity. The result is guaranteed uptime over 99.9%.

One Wi-Fi System, Multiple User Types

A further advantage of Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® is that one system can be segregated into multiple subsystems to meet the needs of different classes of users. Medical devices can communicate with one subsystem, facility staff can use a different subsystem, residents yet another, and visitors another still.

Each subsystem is optimized for the different needs of each user type. Medical devices need high reliability, whereas the residents’ subsystem might be optimized for streaming media and web surfing. Each subsystem is segregated from the others so that no users have access to systems or resources they shouldn’t have.

Future-Proof Your Wi-Fi

Is Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® worth the extra planning and cost? Absolutely—not only in terms of your current requirements, but in meeting the shifting needs brought about by changing demographics, emerging technologies, and more-stringent regulatory requirements.  A Medical Grade Wi-Fi^® system has the flexibility both to meet your current needs and to change with your changing environment.

HealthSignals is the only Wi-Fi service provider that has the confidence to provide a Performance Guarantee.  If something is not working, its is fixed at their cost, not the customers.

Contact HealthSignals today to learn more.