Rep. Axne Applauds $945,000 Grant to Expand Telehealth Capabilities in Iowa’s Health Centers

Today, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) welcomed a new $945,590 grant from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fund the expansion of telehealth and connected cares services at more than 50 Iowa hospitals and health clinics during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The FCC grant was awarded to the Mercy Medical Center for use within their network of health centers, and will cover the costs of purchasing laptop computers, tablets, videoconferencing equipment and software, telemedicine carts, and remote monitoring and diagnostic equipment.

“During this pandemic, telemedicine has become an indispensable tool for our health systems to keep providing care to our patients, and I’m glad to see nearly $1 million in federal grants coming back to help expand these services in central and southwest Iowa,” said Rep. Axne. “I will continue to work at the federal level to expand and solidify these capabilities for older Iowans and those living far from a health center.”

Rep. Axne has made expanding and tracking the effectiveness of telehealth programs a key priority during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following a bipartisan push led by Rep. Axne in April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that they would expand telehealth access for services like physical therapy, speech pathology, and occupational therapy.

Rep. Axne also introduced bipartisan legislation last month to require a formal documentation of the costs, efficiency, and quality of telehealth programs in order to catalog their effectiveness and support the continuation and improvement of telemedicine.