Telehealth

Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and John Thune (R-SD) announced a bipartisan Senate working group to evaluate and propose potential reforms to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The goal of this working group is to create a bipartisan forum to guide education, awareness, and policy-making on this topic.

What can make people enthusiastic about broadband? What if a community, using the creation orientation, views broadband as the means to build or invent things that didn’t exist before? Essential Families is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides virtual parental education and mental healthcare services. The organization conducted a telehealth pilot in one of the poorest communities in Kansas City (MO) with stellar results.

This report examines 10 counties in rural Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi to explore how the costs of achieving true digital equity—by extending robust broadband infrastructure into areas missing it—can be offset by utilizing the potential of telehealth to improve healthcare delivery. To do so, this report first identifies the most common health issues affecting residents in these 10 counties and draws on an academic scholarship to demonstrate the benefits that could come from effective telehealth interventions for each.

Too often policymakers, political leaders, contractors, and consultants want to tell communities just how broadband should work for their unserved and underserved.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau and Office of the Managing Director announced that the service delivery/receipt deadline for the COVID-19 Telehealth Program was April 10, 2023, due to the signing and enactment of the joint resolution ending the COVID-19 national emergency on the same day. This guidance supersedes earlier guidance identifying May 11, 2023, as the service delivery/receipt deadline.

On December 20, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act. This Act directs the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), publicly available data on maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity into its Mapping Broadband Health in America platform by June 18, 2023.

The Aspen Institute and HP Inc. announced the selection of ten not-for-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations in Malaysia, Mexico, and South Africa for the 2023 Digital Equity Accelerator. Each organization is working toward the digital inclusion of marginalized populations and, with the support of the Accelerator, is poised to expand its reach and impact over the next six months. Selected organizations include:

Governments and local nonprofits have dedicated billions of dollars to bring broadband internet to millions of Americans who don’t have it. The gaps don’t just include whether or not broadband internet is available at individual addresses, but the availability of devices, affordability, and the tools and skills to not get scammed while online.

Fiber-optic broadband networks offer faster and more reliable internet services, promoting economic growth, remote work, and telemedicine opportunities in communities across the US. Successful fiber network deployments have been reported in several cities and towns. While the initial investment for fiber networks is high, they offer long-term cost savings by reducing maintenance and upgrade needs. Communities can benefit from improved access to information and resources with the help of fiber networks, which can keep them competitive in the digital age.

In this report, the Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau analyzes how the Connected Care Pilot Program and the COVID-19 Telehealth Program impacted healthcare providers’ use of telehealth services. Telehealth took on an increasingly critical role in healthcare delivery during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.