Telehealth Resource Center Grant Program

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Telehealth Resource Centers (TRCs) assist health care organizations, health care networks, and health care providers in the implementation of cost-effective telehealth programs to serve rural and medically underserved areas and populations.  This FOA will fund two different types of TRCs.  This FOA will support twelve TRCs that focus on State-wide and regional telehealth activities and are referred to as Regional TRCs (RTRCs).  This FOA will also fund two National TRCs (NTRCs) that focus on telehealth policy or technology activities with a national scope.  This funding cycle will support up to twelve RTRCs, with one per region as shown below.  RTRCs will serve as focal points for advancing the effective use of telehealth technologies in their respective communities and States.  Northeast Region         Southeast Region      Upper Midwest Region     Northwest Region        Connecticut Alabama Illinois Alaska Maine Florida Indiana Idaho Massachusetts Georgia Michigan Montana New Hampshire South Carolina Ohio Oregon New Jersey Utah New York South Region      North Central Region   Washington Rhode Island Arkansas Iowa Wyoming Vermont Mississippi Minnesota Tennessee Nebraska Southwest Region        Mid-Atlantic Region      Delaware North Dakota Arizona South Central Region   South Dakota Colorado District of Columbia     Kansas Wisconsin Nevada Kentucky Missouri New Mexico Maryland Oklahoma                 Pacific Region          Utah New Jersey American Samoa North Carolina West Central Region           Guam West Region          Pennsylvania Louisiana Hawaii California Virginia Texas                    Northern Mariana Islands West Virginia One National TRC (NTRC) will focus on policy issues such as: clinician licensure, credentialing and privileging, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, and private insurance payment policies.  A second National TRC (NTRC) will focus on technical issues of telehealth system selection and evaluation, interfacing/ integration with other systems such as clinical, billing, scheduling, and administration at the consumer, consultant, and originating sites, system interoperability, system support and upgrading, cyber security, technology alerts and recalls or related technology concerns.  Both NTRCs must demonstrate a high level of experience and knowledge of their respective areas at the State, local and national level.  In addition, each National TRC will work to support the Regional TRCs in their efforts to advance telehealth. The Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) expects all TRCs to fully collaborate with each other, to share and combine expertise and resources to create a unified telehealth technical assistance capability with agile and market leading educational tools, consulting and support capabilities.  The technical assistance resources will be created to meet needs of telehealth networks, practitioners or organizations across the nation.  It is anticipated that awards will: (A) providing technical assistance, training, and support, and providing for travel expenses, for health care providers and a range of health care entities that provide or will provide telehealth services; (B) disseminating information and research findings related to telehealth services; (C) promoting effective collaboration among telehealth resource centers and the Office; (D) conducting evaluations to determine the best utilization of telehealth technologies to meet health care needs; (E) promoting the integration of the technologies used in clinical information systems with other telehealth technologies; (F) fostering the use of telehealth technologies to provide health care information and education for health care providers and consumers in a more effective manner; and (G) implementing special projects or studies under the direction of the Office. If technical assistance provided to a specific organization or provider exceeds ten hours, a TRC may charge a reasonable fee for continuing assistance or refer the entity to consultants or other resources for ongoing assistance.  Any fees received by TRCs must be used to supplement the HRSA award activities and must be listed and explained in reports to OAT.

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