The FCC's rules will directly link the 12,000 non-profit and public health care providers who serve rural Americans to specialists who would otherwise be hours or days away. Universal service policy will save lives by saving time. In rural areas, trauma injuries are 4 times more likely to result in death than in urban areas due to distance and lack of information. So it asked the FCC to figure out how to give public and non-profit rural health care providers access to advanced telecommunications services at rates comparable to those paid by their urban counterparts. Rates for these services will be made comparable through funding support for distance charges.
Many telecommunications carriers charge a per-mile fee for their services.
These distance charges make up the bulk of the difference between the telecommunications costs of rural health care providers and those of urban health care providers. Universal service funds will cover per-mile charges for a distance equivalent to that of the nearest city of 50,000. Universal service funds will cover a limited amount of toll- free access to the Internet. Some health care providers must make long distance calls to reach the nearest Internet service provider. As you know, access to the Internet and its wide variety of health care information will provide new vehicles for consumer education.