Broadband and COVID-19 Series: Telehealth

by Aviva Mehta, IEDC Intern and Hannah Burke, IEDC Research Associate

Broadband and Healthcare 

The quality of healthcare services differs from place to place in the United States. In rural places, healthcare suffers due to trends in hospital consolidation, and difficulty in retaining medical professionals. Telehealthcare services promise access to quality healthcare from home which sounds like a perfect solution for rural communities: healthcare at the push of a button, without needing to travel long hours. However, there is one essential, and often missing, link in this system: fiber broadband. 

Broadband is drastically changing the healthcare sector by supporting interconnectivity between clinic locations, healthcare partners and patients. Through broadband, patients can receive psychiatric services, radiology consultation and more. However, according to a report by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) more than 20 million Americans still lack access to high-speed broadband services. This number is even more jarring in rural areas, where one-fourth of the population lacks broadband access and in tribal areas where nearly one-third of the population lacks access. Even in areas where broadband is available, around 100 million Americans are not subscribed. What this means is that even as the healthcare industry is moving to more telehealth options, especially in the midst of a global pandemic, rural residents are unable to access these services, leading to health problems intensifying in those areas.   

How to Address

According to a 2017 survey, 42 percent of IEDC members said telehealth “is a major economic development issue for us”. Economic developers can help with this issue by providing essential information about broadband services to the healthcare community and by working with internet providers to bring access to their region. For example, in 2013, the FCC established the Healthcare Connect Fund to provide support for high-capacity broadband connectivity to healthcare providers. The Indiana Rural Health Association then used this fund to form the Indiana Telehealth Network (ITN)—a network to improve the health and well-being of rural Indiana residents by utilizing a dedicated broadband health network. 

COVID-19 Implications 

COVID-19 has made remote health services a necessity, and has brought the topic of broadband services to provide healthcare front and center. A recent program by the FCC, the COVID-19 Telehealth Program, provides $200 million in funding as part of the CARES Act to help healthcare providers provide services to patients remotely in response to the pandemic. The program helps eligible healthcare providers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by fully funding their telecommunication services, information services, and devices necessary to provide critical connected care services. Prior to COVID-19, several states had restrictions that made providing prescriptions via telehealthcare, meeting with out of state physicians, and first time patients meetings very difficult. In response to COVID-19, many states have modified the policies surrounding telehealth to ease restrictions. A survey of 1,300 physicians conducted in April found that 90 percent are now using some form of telehealth due to the pandemic, and 68 percent plan to continue doing so. This number is over 20 percent higher than those seen prior to the pandemic. 

COVID-19 has completely changed the world of telehealth, since it is no longer a commodity but a necessity. A community’s ability to foresee, adapt to and leverage changing conditions to their advantage will determine its success, and access to broadband services will be vital to all communities during this pandemic.