FCC 'Actively Reviewing' Questions About the Term 'Not-for-Profit Hospital,' Wheeler Tells Kirk

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler reassured Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., that the agency is looking into the term “not-for-profit hospital,” which the lawmaker suggested could use some clarity. Commission staff is “actively reviewing questions about the term's definition and seek to reach a determination in as expeditious a manner as possible,” Wheeler said in an Oct. 24 letter the agency released last week. “In general, it is important that the types of health care consortia envisioned by the HCF [Healthcare Connect Fund] program have the flexibility to include as members those entities that will provide as broad an array of telehealth and telemedicine applications as possible, while also ensuring the program maintains sufficient funding to aid the beneficiaries for which it is primarily intended: rural health care providers.”