Health and Media

The Federal Communication Commission released a proposed update to the Rural Health Care Program last week, in an effort to satisfy the rapidly expanding need for broadband telehealth programs.

[Commentary] The high rate of rural hospital closures is one factor driving the increasing interest in telemedicine, which uses high speed internet services to connect patients with healthcare providers. What some may not understand is that the push for telehealth may very well be the secret to advancing broadband itself in underserved communities, both rural and urban. By aligning healthcare institutions with schools and libraries that have telemedicine applications and services into a healthcare hub, a community can produce a powerful infrastructure.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition along with 35 health care providers and telehealth networks from across the country sent a letter to Congressional leaders today asking them to support an increase in funding for the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Health Care (RHC) program. “This is a life and death issue for Rural America,” said John Windhausen, Executive Director of the SHLB Coalition.

The growing popularity of fried chicken and pizza in parts of Africa
underscores how fast food is changing habits and expanding waistlines.

If you want to be happier, you might want to ditch your phone. It may be common knowledge that spending too much time on social media leads to disappointment with yourself, but according to data from Moment, an iPhone app that tracks app usage, there isn’t a single app that makes you feel good for spending more, rather than less, time on it.

Weekly, Moment asks users whether they’re happy with the time spent on each of their apps. The ratings are then used to compare the amount of time that “happy” users and “unhappy” users spend on each app. Apps for which “happy” users spend more time on than “unhappy” users meet the criteria for “time well spent.” Moment publishes the list of apps that make the cut each week. It usually includes things like Google Calendar, Podcasts, Spotify, or Reminders—apps that help users stay organized, focused, or informed. But an analysis of app ratings aggregated over 2017 shows that, ultimately, no app that received 1,000 ratings or more actually made the time-well-spent criteria. In other words, all apps have diminishing returns over the long run.

[Commentary] Broadband infrastructure can help plug some of the leaks in rural healthcare services. The result can be better healthcare access and an improved local economy. Arrowhead Electric Cooperative built a fiber network in Cook County (MN) a few years ago. “Our main healthcare facilities send patients home with medic alert-type devices and even tablets to monitor recovery and ensure communication thanks to fiber to home,” says Yusef Orest, head of membership services for the co-op. “Before the network, individuals had internet access but it wasn’t fast. Now, hospitals are increasing services at patients’ home and on-site. For example, they can perform ultrasounds and radiology scans and send results instantly to bigger hospitals for analysis.”

Rural communities can learn from small towns – some in metropolitan areas and some in less populated regions – that have made it their missions to use broadband to transform the nature of healthcare and telemedicine.

[Craig Settles is a broadband industry analyst and consultant to local governments.]

President Donald Trump touted a new program to increase veterans' electronic access to medical care as part of a broader tele-health push at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The initiative connects veterans with health providers via mobile phones or computers, and is intended to improve medical care especially for those needing mental health and suicide prevention services, President Trump said. “It will make a tremendous difference for the veterans in rural locations in particular,” President Trump said at the White House with VA Secretary David Shulkin. The application allows veterans to schedule appointments via their smart phones. Shulkin also previewed a regulation allowing VA providers to provide tele-health services to veterans anywhere in the country.

Do Medicare and Medicaid pay when beneficiaries use two-way video visits to get care from their doctors? It depends. Medicare pays for some two-way video visits—referred to as "telehealth"—if the patients connect from rural health facilities. Medicare is testing new ways to provide health care that allow telehealth coverage regardless of location. Under Medicaid, states may cover different types of telehealth services from different types of care providers. In the 6 states we reviewed, officials from states that were generally more rural said they used telehealth more frequently than officials from more urban states.