AFFORDABLE TELEHEALTH IN RURAL AMERICA
                                              Release No. 0142.97

                                     Tom Amontree  (202) 720-4623
                                               tamontree@usda.gov
                                     Adam Golodner (202) 720-9542
                                               agolodner@usda.gov

GLICKMAN JOINS SHALALA, DALEY IN URGING AFFORDABLE TELEHEALTH IN RURAL AMERICA

     WASHINGTON, April 30, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, joined
by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Commerce Secretary
William Daley, today called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to
help ensure that rural health care providers have access to affordable
telecommunications.  

     In a letter to Reed Hundt, Chairman, and all other Commissioners of the
FCC, they urged the FCC to meaningfully implement the provision of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, providing discounts for telecommunications
services for rural health care providers who are growing increasingly reliant
on telehealth services. The rates will apply to over 12,000 rural health care
providers.

     As required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, on May 8, 1997, the
FCC will issue an order rewriting the Nation's commitment to universal
telecommunications service.  The universal service commitment includes support
for those living in rural America, and discounts on advanced
telecommunications services for all schools (K-12), libraries and rural health
care providers in the country.

     "Discounted telecommunications services for rural health care providers
will help ensure that rural Americans have access to important health care
information at affordable rates," Glickman said.  "This quality of life issue
is critical to the health and economic vitality of rural Americans."

     In the letter to Hundt, the three Secretaries recognized that the
delivery of health care to rural Americans is challenged by distance, time and
space; they stressed the importance of telecommunications in reducing that
challenge; they called for discounts for telehealth uses of rural health care
providers to eliminate the extra cost of transmitting over long distances;
and, they called for discounts for rural telehealth Internet access, so that
rural doctors and health professionals don't have to pay long distance and per
minute charges to be on line.

     Advanced telecommunications in health care allows the use of interactive
video consultation and diagnosis, facilitates emergency care in remote rural
areas, provides access to continuing health care education to reduce
practitioner isolation, provides access to the Internet, and brings to rural
Americans the type and quality of health care available to urban and suburban
Americans.

     "In the State of the Union address, the President called for the country
to connect all hospitals to the Internet," Glickman said.  "A significant
application of the FCC discount will help rural health care providers to move
quickly to reach that goal."
                                #