Representative Kevin Cramer http://cramer.house.gov just announced that legislation he sponsored called the “Rural Health Care Connectivity Act of 2016” www.congress.gov was signed into law.
The Act aids rural skilled nursing facilities by giving them access to funding within the Universal Service Fund www.fcc.gov/general/universal-service. Access to the funding will enable skilled nursing facilities to use telemedicine by upgrading broadband access in rural areas.
Cramer was one of three sponsors of the House bill. The sponsor of Senate bill S.1916 was South Dakota Senator John Thune www.thune.senate.gov. Senator Thune said, “This common-sense legislation will support and improve healthcare for people across South Dakota including people living in rural areas.”
Dan Holdhusen, Director of Government Relations for the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society www.good-sam.com, which started in North Dakota but is now headquartered in Sioux Falls, testified in a hearing on the bill in the House Energy and Commerce’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee last April.
He said, “Many of these facilities are in very rural areas, and rely on the transmission of remote virtual connections, medical records, and other data across broadband networks throughout the state.”