Health and Media

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, in consultation with the Office of the Managing Director (OMD), announces the amount of unused funds for the Rural Health Care (RHC) Program that have been carried forward for funding year 2025. The FCC’s rules for the RHC Program establish a process to carry forward unused funds from past funding years for use in future funding years. The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) projects that, as of May 31, 2025, $129.30 million in unused funds is available for use in future funding years beginning in funding year

The Universal Service Administrative Company’s (USAC’s) estimated total Rural Health Care Program demand for Funding Year 2025 is $823.08 million, including the gross demand estimate of $787.21 million for the Telecommunications (Telecom) and Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Programs and the projected USAC administrative expenses of $35.87 million.

Reps Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) reintroduced the bipartisan Prescription Information Modernization Act.

Senators Jim Banks (R-IN) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) introduced the Delivering Digitally to Our Veterans Act of 2025. More than 600,000 veterans and 275,000 dependents use G.I. Bill education benefits. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is working to modernize the program through the Digital G.I. Bill, but most communications are still sent on paper. This legislation would allow veterans to opt-out of receiving hard copy G.I. Bill documents in the mail and instead receive electronic correspondence from VA.

Digital health applications, from tele-mental health services to remote patient monitoring to health portals, have the promise of improving people’s access to health care. But in order to ensure that patients can benefit from these advances in technology, they need robust, affordable internet connections, devices, and the skills to use these technologies safely. Our work at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is focused on ensuring that everyone can use and benefit from broadband.

Years of Republican and Democratic administrations have tried to fix the nation’s broadband woes, through flawed attempts.

Congressman David Valadao (R-CA-22) and Congressman Adam Gray (D-CA-13) introduced the Telehealth Network and Telehealth Resource Centers Grant Program Reauthorization Act. This bipartisan bill would provide investment in rural healthcare by reauthorizing the telehealth network and telehealth resource centers grant programs through Fiscal Year 2030.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in partnership with the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, is seeking public input on how best to advance a seamless, secure, and patient-centered digital health infrastructure. The request for information invites input from patients, caregivers, providers, payers, technology developers, and other stakeholders on how CMS and ASTP/ONC can: 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is taking action to preserve the core mission of the Medicaid program by putting an end to spending that duplicates resources available through other federal and state programs or isn’t directly tied to healthcare services.  Mounting expenditures, such as covering housekeeping for individuals who are not eligible for Medicaid or high-speed internet for rural healthcare providers, distracts from the core mission of Medicaid, and in some instances, serves as an overly-creative financing mechanism to skirt state budget responsibilities. CM

The Trump administration further embraced the theory that the deadly Covid-19 pandemic emanated from a lab in China, updating the government’s main websites about the virus to detail that argument.