Spotlight

FCC Seeks Comment on How to Facilitate Voluntary Adoption of Best Practices to Help Combat Robocalls to Hospitals

On January 11, 2021, the FCC released a Public Notice seeking comments on how to facilitate the voluntary adoption of best practices issued on December 14, 2020 by the Hospital Robocall Protection Group to help combat unlawful robocalls to hospitals.

The HRPG, a federal advisory committee, was formed on June 25, 2020 in accordance with the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act of 2019 (TRACED Act) to address the scourge of malicious robocalls to hospitals and health care institutions. In accordance with the TRACED Act, the HRPG's best practices concern the following:

• How voice service providers can better combat unlawful robocalls made to hospitals
• How hospitals can better protect themselves from such calls, including by using unlawful robocall mitigation techniques
• How the Federal Government and State governments can help combat such calls.

The HRPG best practices focus on collective efforts and encourage a coordinated response among hospitals, phone companies, and government agencies to mitigate the impact of these calls. The complete text of the best practices can be found here.

The TRACED Act now requires the Commission to conclude a proceeding no later than June 12, 2021, to "assess the extent to which the voluntary adoption of such best practices can be facilitated to protect hospitals and other institutions." The PN initiates that proceeding.

Comments on the PN are due by February 1, 2021. Complete text of the HRPG Best Practices PN and related materials can be found here.

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