Benton Institute for Broadband & Society - Telehealth

Congress Provides More Money for Rural Broadband Deployment

Grace Tepper — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:52:29 +0000

On March 15, 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 which provides funding through September 30, 2022 for projects and activities of the Federal Government. Much of the coverage of the law highlights the $13.6 billion in funding to address Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact on surrounding countries. But there's also more funding for broadband in the new law. And, with the return of earmarks—now known as "congressionally directed spending" or "community-project funding"—some specific broadband projects will now be funded. The law provides a total of nearly $4 billion for rural development programs. Over $550 million of these development funds are targeted to expand broadband service in rural areas to provide economic development opportunities and improved education and healthcare services, such as through the ReConnect program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 also allocates $62.5 million to be used for grants for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas. Such funds may be used to finance the construction of facilities and systems providing telemedicine services and distance learning services.

[Kevin Taglang is executive editor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/congress-provides-more-money-rural-broadband-deploym…

Teaser:

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022, includes funding for a variety of broadband initiatives.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Fri, 03/25/2022

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/24/2022

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 03/25/2022

Coverage Type:

Affordability/Cost/Price

Infrastructure

Universal Broadband

Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund Guidance Now Available

benton — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 16:59:23 +0000

The Department of the Treasury released guidance for the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund program established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The program allocates $10 billion for eligible governments to carry out critical capital projects that directly enable work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options, in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The Capital Projects Fund Guidance for States, Territories, and Freely Associated States describes in detail how your government may obtain and use these funds. A key priority of this program is to make funds available to recipients that would like to make investments in high-quality, affordable broadband infrastructure and other digital connectivity technologies. This pandemic has shown us that broadband infrastructure is indispensable for access to critical services and participation in aspects of daily life, including remote work, telehealth, and distance learning. At the same time, recipients have flexibility to use funds for certain capital projects other than broadband infrastructure that enable work, education, and health monitoring, including remote options. The guidance provides information about eligible areas for investment and technical standards, and encourages projects in economically distressed areas, supports community empowerment, and encourages strong labor practices. Although this is not a competitive grant program, states, territories, and freely associated states must first submit a simple application establishing recipient eligibility. The Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund application portal will open on September 24, 2021.

Benton Content:

https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-a…

Teaser:

Application portal will open on September 24, 2021

Source:

Department of the Treasury

Send date:

Wed, 09/22/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/21/2021

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Tue, 09/21/2021

Coverage Type:

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

USForward: FCC Must Reform USF Contributions Now - An Analysis of the Options

benton — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:14:19 +0000

The Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Universal Service Fund (USF or Fund) has been one of the nation’s most important tools for connecting our nation, including rural communities, low-income families, schools, libraries, and rural health care facilities. However, the funding mechanism that supports the Fund is under significant duress. The “contribution base” – the revenues used to calculate USF contributions – has declined 63% in the last two decades, from $79.9 billion in 2001 to $29.6 billion in 2021. Meanwhile, the “contribution factor” – which is the USF fee assessed on interstate and international telecommunications service and certain telecommunications revenues – has increased from 6.9% in 2001 to a historic high of 33.4% in the second quarter of 2021. Assuming a continuation of historical trends, the contribution factor could approach 40% or more in the coming years. This situation is unsustainable and jeopardizes the universal broadband connectivity mission for our nation without immediate FCC reform. To ensure the enduring value of the USF program and America’s connectivity goals, we must have a smart and substantive conversation about the program’s future. At the request of INCOMPAS, NTCA – the Rural Broadband Association, and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, this report analyzes several options for FCC reform of the current status quo that have been pending in FCC rulemakings dating back to the early 2000’s: (1) modifying the current revenues-based contribution methodology to assess broadband internet access service revenues, (2) assessing connections, or (3) assessing telephone numbers. Reforming the current revenues-based system to include broadband internet access service revenues is the preferred approach, both as a matter of policy and ease of implementation. Doing so would reduce the contribution factor to less than 4%.

First, it is appropriate as a matter of public policy to assess broadband internet access service revenues because all four programs in the USF promote universal broadband. The revenues from broadband internet access services that are increasingly used by Americans today should contribute to the USF programs that support the expansion of such services to all. This will better reflect the value of broadband internet access service in today’s marketplace for both consumers and businesses.
Second, broadband internet access service revenues are expected to be stable in the future, with the potential for some modest growth. This would stabilize the funding mechanism and stop the death spiral in the current USF contribution methodology.
Third, it is a solution that can be implemented more quickly than the alternatives. It would be far less uncertain than seeking congressional intervention and can be done by the FCC pursuant to its current statutory mandate. FCC reform of the USF contribution mechanism now is an important first step in stabilizing the current system.
Fourth, there is a significant advantage to retaining the current revenues-based system because most of the revenues reported to the FCC for USF purposes come from publicly traded companies that are audited and subject to stringent financial reporting standards for their revenues. This external financial scrutiny would provide an additional level of assurance that the metric used to assess USF contributions is accurately reported.
Fifth, assessing both broadband internet access service and voice services removes the incentives of providers to arbitrarily allocate revenues from bundled services to one service and not the other. This creates an inequitable situation where some end users continue to pay into USF, while others do not, yet everyone benefits from the positive network externalities of universal connectivity made possible from the four USF programs that support broadband-capable networks and service.

Benton Content:

https://www.shlb.org/policy/research/USForward

Teaser:

New research from the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, INCOMPAS, and NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association

Source:

Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition

Author:

Carol Mattey

Send date:

Wed, 09/15/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 9/14/2021

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Tue, 09/14/2021

Coverage Type:

Research

Community Anchor Institutions

Healthcare Facilities

Affordability/Cost/Price

Infrastructure

Universal Broadband

Research

Universal Service Fund

Rural Health Care

Rural Digital Opportunity Fund

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

5G Fund for Rural America

The Last Broadband Gifts From the 116th Congress

benton — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 13:05:11 +0000

With great drama, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 became law on December 27, 2021. The $2.3 trillion COVID relief and government spending bill extended unemployment benefits and ensured the government can keep running. The $900 billion COVID relief provision includes over $7 billion to help improve connectivity in the U.S. Here's a rundown of the support for broadband in the new law including discounted broadband service for low-income people, funding to make telecommunications networks more secure, grants for deploying new broadband networks in rural and Tribal areas, connecting minority communities, supporting telehealth, improving broadband maps, better coordination of federal broadband efforts, and more spectrum for 5G services.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/last-broadband-gifts-116th-congress

Teaser:

Broadband provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Fri, 01/15/2021

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 1/14/2021

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Fri, 01/15/2021

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Cybersecurity and Cyberwarfare

Affordability/Cost/Price

Wireless Telecommunications

Wireless Internet

Headlines Specific Topic:

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Broadband for America Now

benton — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:17:54 +0000

In October 2019, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society issued Broadband for America’s Future: A Vision for the 2020s. The agenda was comprehensive, constructed upon achievements in communities and insights from experts across the nation. The report outlined the key building blocks of broadband policy—deployment, competition, community anchor institutions, and digital equity (including affordability and adoption). The agenda called for everyone to be able to use High-Performance Broadband by the end of the decade. When we released the report last fall, we promised a refresh in 2020 because we knew there were issues that required additional development and more success stories that needed to be told. What we did not know was that the world would be changed permanently by COVID-19, creating health, economic, and social crises, resulting in the worst economic setback in America in decades and unveiling a connectivity crisis that spans rural and urban places, threatening to create an even more divided America. This essay offers our key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/publications/broadband-america-now

Teaser:

This essay offers key recommendations by describing the likely pattern of changing broadband usage once the present crisis recedes, and by emphasizing how federal, state, tribal, and local governments should work together to implement a comprehensive broadband agenda.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Jonathan Sallet

Send date:

Thu, 10/29/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/28/2020

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Thu, 10/29/2020

Coverage Type:

Research

Headlines Specific Topic:

Benton Foundation

Coronavirus and Connectivity

Supporting the Increasingly Important Missions of Community Anchor Institutions

benton — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:46:02 +0000

Community anchor institutions should be at the center of any comprehensive national strategy to promote the availability and use of High-Performance Broadband. Community anchor institutions use broadband to provide essential services to their community, such as education, information access, and telehealth services. But in the 21st century, community anchors’ missions are moving beyond their walls. Libraries no longer deliver knowledge that is housed only within their buildings or the covers of hardbound books. Public education today cannot exist separate from the ability of students and teachers to use broadband connections—both in school and out. And health-care facilities see and monitor patients both in hospitals and in their homes. More broadband connections are needed in order to reach more community anchor institutions. A 2018 Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition report authored by CTC Technology & Energy found that 60 percent or more of community anchor institutions in the United States lacked robust and scalable connections that fiber networks would provide. For example, in low-density metro areas (with between 363 and 1,669 residents per square mile), the connection rate was only 50 percent. CTC estimates that all unconnected community anchor institutions in the continental United States and Hawaii (outside of Alaska) could obtain fiber connections for between $13 billion and $19 billion and that major savings could be obtained through the implementation of best practices that include competitive bidding processes and aggregated purchasing.

[Jonathan Sallet is a Benton Senior Fellow]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/supporting-increasingly-important-missions-community…

Teaser:

Community anchor institutions should be at the center of any comprehensive national strategy to promote the availability and use of High-Performance Broadband.

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Jonathan Sallet

Send date:

Mon, 03/02/2020

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 2/28/2020

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

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Publish Date:

Mon, 03/02/2020

Coverage Type:

Analysis

Community Anchor Institutions

Healthcare Facilities

Universal Service Fund

E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

Rural Health Care

Engagement on Equity: Connectivity and the Future of Healthcare

benton — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 16:25:41 +0000

Bridging the digital divide can help address our nation’s persistent health disparities. Rural Americans not only face limited access to health-care facilities, but “suffer from higher rates of obesity, mental health issues, diabetes, cancer, and opioid addiction.” But the tie that also binds is the lack of high-speed broadband connectivity in low-income communities, too. Rural America, as you know, is facing a physician shortage and low-income and rural populations are less likely to have choice when it comes to broadband providers. Allow me to be more direct: in those places where there is a wealth and/or population gap, there is a health care and broadband availability gap. While the challenge is clear, the cure is even clearer. With broadband connectivity, patients with virtually any condition can be seen remotely by a specialist without having to drive anywhere at all. So should come as no surprise that 52 percent of hospitals now use at least some form of telehealth, another 10 percent are just ramping up and we expect more to come on board. What does this make clear? That a healthy America is a connected America. Conversely, if we fail to fully address America’s broadband connectivity gap – when it comes, to health and wellness in rural America -- none of us, will be completely well. Real, High-Performance Broadband can help solve some of health care’s most enduring problems and intractable challenges... and it can do so by delivering massive cost-saving opportunities. It can slow runaway health-care cost growth, enable patients to harness a new generation of connected-care devices that help them live longer and more productive lives and extend connected care everywhere while closing the rural health-care gap.

[Mignon Clyburn served as a Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from 2009 to 2018, including a term as Acting Chairwoman in 2013. She currently serves on the Benton Board of Directors]

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/engagement-equity-connectivity-and-future-healthcare

Teaser:

Bridging the digital divide can help address our nation’s persistent health disparities

Source:

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society

Author:

Mignon Clyburn

Send date:

Thu, 10/17/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 10/16/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Wed, 10/16/2019

Coverage Type:

Speech

Digital Divide

Health and Media

Health Information Technology

Telehealth

Internet/Broadband

Universal Broadband

A Preview of the FCC's July Open Meeting: Taking the "E" Out of EBS and TV

benton — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 17:44:25 +0000

Perhaps the biggest news of the week was the agenda for the Federal Communications Commission's July 10 Open Meeting, which FCC Chairman Ajit Pai laid out in a blog post on June 18, 2019. I'm traveling to New York this week; below is a shorter-than-usual weekly that takes a look at how Chairman Pai plans to take education out of the Educational Broadband Service -- and broadcast television.

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/blog/preview-fccs-july-open-meeting-taking-e-out-ebs-and-…

Teaser:

Federal Communications Commission's July 10 Open Meeting

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Robbie McBeath

Send date:

Fri, 06/21/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 6/20/2019

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Not Available

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Publish Date:

Thu, 06/20/2019

Coverage Type:

Health Information Technology

Telehealth

Internet/Broadband

Competition/Antitrust

Universal Broadband

Spectrum

Auctions

Wireless Telecommunications

Why is the FCC Talking about a USF Cap?

benton — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:11:47 +0000

The Benton Foundation unequivocally opposes any proposals from the Federal Communications Commission that would allow the FCC to shirk its responsibilities to meet its Congressionally-mandated mission. The FCC is supposed to ensure:

Quality services are available at just, reasonable, and affordable rates.
Access to advanced telecommunications and information services are provided in all regions of the Nation.
Consumers in all regions of the Nation, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high cost areas, have access to telecommunications and information services, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and information services, that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas and that are available at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas.
There are specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service.
Elementary and secondary schools and classrooms, health care providers, and libraries should have access to advanced telecommunications services.

USF budget reductions or caps could stall and stifle America’s internet opportunity. They would undercut critical efforts to close the digital divide, efforts meant to ensure that every American can take advantage of the transformative opportunities that broadband can deliver. Capping internet opportunity is not the right answer. Rather, the FCC should spend its time working to eliminate the bureaucratic barriers that are preventing these programs from getting the most bang for the buck and achieving their maximum potential.

We can’t extend broadband’s reach throughout rural America with a USF cap. We can’t solve the homework gap with a USF cap. We can’t ensure that everyone can afford essential voice and broadband service with a USF cap. We can’t bring world-class medical care to rural areas with a USF cap. So why is the FCC talking about a USF cap?

Benton Content:

Benton Original Content

https://www.benton.org/content/why-fcc-talking-about-usf-cap

Teaser:

Source:

Benton Foundation

Author:

Kevin Taglang

Send date:

Thu, 03/28/2019

Daily Digest:

Daily Digest 3/27/2019

DD Publish Status:

Not Available

Include summary in newsletter email:

Publish Date:

Wed, 03/27/2019

Coverage Type:

Press Release

Agenda

Upcoming policy issue

Digital Divide

Health and Media

Health Information Technology

Universal Service Fund

E-rate/Schools and Libraries Program

Lifeline/Low-Income Consumers

Wireless Telecommunications

Wireless Internet

The Impact Of Telemedicine On Medicare Utilization, Spending, And Quality, 2019–22

zwalker@benton.org — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:56:29 +0000

Telemedicine use remains substantially higher than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, although it has fallen from pandemic highs. To inform the ongoing debate about whether to continue payment for telemedicine visits, this report estimated the association of greater telemedicine use across health systems with utilization, spending, and quality. In 2020, Medicare patients receiving care at health systems in the highest quartile of telemedicine use had 2.5 telemedicine visits per person, compared with 0.7 telemedicine visits per person in the lowest quartile of telemedicine use. In 2021–22, relative to those in the lowest quartile, Medicare patients of health systems in the highest quartile had an increase of 0.21 total outpatient visits (telemedicine and in-person) per patient per year, a decrease of 14.4 annual non-COVID-19 emergency department visits per 1,000 patients per year, a $248 increase in per patient per year spending, and increased adherence for metformin and statins. There were no clear differential changes in hospitalizations or receipt of preventive care.

Benton Content:

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01142

Teaser:

This report estimates the association of greater telemedicine use across health systems with utilization, spending, and quality.

Source:

Author: