New Legislation Would Increase Funding for Telemedicine

Congressmen Mike Thompson, D-California recently introduced telemedicine legislation would provide $30 million in grants to help health facilities pay for telehealth equipment and expand telehealth support services. Currently about 80% of Americans do not have access to telemedicine because of restrictions that limit funding for these types of facilities to rural areas. The Medicare Telehealth Enhancement Act (House Resolution 2068) would expand Medicare reimbursement to urban and suburban areas and include more facilities, the press release states. It will also allow doctors to monitor patients remotely.

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Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Publishes RFP for Teletherapy Project

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in Washington State is providing a bidding opportunity on a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a "Special Education and Related Services Teletherapy Pilot Project".

OSPI is initiating this RFP to solicit proposals from firms, school districts, institutes of higher education, medical facilities, and other agencies interested in participating on a project to develop, implement, and evaluate a teletherapy pilot program to provide designated special education and/or related services to students with disabilities ages three (3) through twenty-one (21) from rural, suburban, and urban locations within Washington State. The objective is to provide speech language, occupational, and physical therapy services via point-to-point teletherapy technologies in pilot public school districts that, due to unfilled personnel vacancies and/or personnel shortages, do not currently have the required special education-related service providers to implement services identified on special education students' individual education plans.

For more information, please read the complete RFP file available here.