Is U.S. Broadband Up to the Response to the Coronavirus?
Source: Benton Institute for Broadband and Society March 13, 2020
You’re reading the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society’s Weekly Digest, a recap of the biggest (or most overlooked) broadband stories of the week. The digest is delivered via e-mail each Friday.
Round-Up for the Week of March 9-13, 2020
Broadband makes telehealth, telework, and distance learning possible. But is U.S. broadband up to the task of delivering these services to everyone in the face of the coronavirus (COVID-19)? Both the government and private sector are moving to online systems and operations, but not everyone in the U.S. can easily follow.
Turning to Telemedicine
Large hospitals across the country are quickly expanding the use of telemedicine to safely screen and treat patients for coronavirus, and to try to contain the spread of infection while offering remote services, the New York Times reported this week. The Wall Street Jounal looked at the role of hospital chief information officers who are putting in place new systems and workflows to get ahead of the growing epidemic that threatens to tax limited resources and staff. Their tasks include greenlighting telemedicine projects to reduce expected patient gridlock, developing digital dashboards to speed triage, and testing and retesting systems expected to allow staff to work remotely. Some health systems are fast-tracking planned technology projects such as telemedicine, aimed at screening patients without requiring them to visit a hospital.
Health insurance plans do typically offer people the option of talking to a nurse or doctor online as an alternative to heading to an emergency room or urgent care center, but most people don’t make use of it. Now doctors, hospital networks, and clinics are rethinking how the technology can be used to steer the most at risk to the proper treatment.
Telemedicine got an additional boost under the $8.3 billion emergency funding measure from Congress, which loosened restrictions on its use to treat people covered under the federal Medicare program. Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, praised the government’s efforts to expand the use of telemedicine under Medicare, the federal program for people 65 and older. Private health insurers also said they would pay for the virtual visits for people who may have coronavirus to improve access to care for their customers.