May 18th, 2018 by WCBC Radio

Count the Western Maryland Health System as fully supportive of a bipartisan effort underway urging the Federal Communications Commission to increase the $400 million annual cap for the Rural Health Care Program. It is used to provide funding for telecommunications and broadband services to rural communities to support telemedicine. Lawmakers sent a letter this week to the FCC calling on the agency to expand the funding cap to meet the current and future needs of the program, which they say has been improving the quality of rural healthcare for more than 20 years. However, the senators pointed out that in 2016—for the first time ever—the demand for the Rural Health Care Program exceeded the cap, and funding to recipients was reduced by 7.5 percent. In addition, they noted that RHC Program applicants will suffer a “devastating cutback” of 16 percent to 26 percent in funding year 2017 because of continued growth in demand.  Health System President and CEO Barry Ronan…