FCC Awarded MedStar Health Close to $1 Million to Advance Telehealth Response to COVID-19 Crisis

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has awarded $976,679 to MedStar Health to provide additional support for the exponential growth of the system’s telehealth offerings in response to COVID-19. As of early July, MedStar Health had delivered more than 275,000 telehealth sessions during the pandemic.

“This FCC award will support telehealth investments we’ve made to transform care delivery during the pandemic and will also help fund related work in the coming months to continue to treat and protect our communities,” said Bill Sheahan, vice president of telehealth at MedStar Health and the leader of the MedStar Telehealth Innovation Center, part of the MedStar Institute for Innovation. 

The award will enable the system to sustain and expand its core telehealth offerings—MedStar eVisit, MedStar Health Video Visits, and MedStar eConsults—while continuing to develop connected care solutions that will serve patients, providers, and communities throughout the pandemic and beyond. The FCC’s support will assist MedStar Health in offering telehealth solutions to an estimated 1.6 million system patients, with a focus on investments in telehealth platforms and equipment.

“COVID-19 has transformed many telehealth aspirations into urgent needs, and this FCC funding will help us continue to scale and build telehealth offerings at the pace required to serve our communities during the pandemic,” said Mark Smith, MD, chief innovation officer of MedStar Health and director of the MedStar Institute for Innovation. 

Read the full press release from MedStar Health for more on the award from the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau through its COVID-19 Telehealth Program, and for additional information about MedStar Health’s COVID-19 telehealth response.