Health Information Technology

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau establishes a uniform completion deadline of Dec. 31, 2025, for all participants in the Connected Care Pilot Program, and waives the previous completion deadline of three years from each project's start date.

States are using their digital equity plans to demonstrate how successful digital inclusion efforts can advance progress toward other goals, including improvements to civic and social engagement, economic development, education, health care, and delivery of essential services.

Heartland Forward is launching an initiative to expand telehealth access in Arkansas and Oklahoma by teaching librarians how to prepare community members for a telehealth visit.

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that veterans across the country who are enrolled in VA care can now receive virtual emergency assessments to determine the severity of medical afflictions. The new tele-emergency care—or tele-EC—service is designed to connect retired servicemembers with clinical triage nurses, who can then evaluate their symptoms and determine if they require in-person aid. Veterans can access the tele-EC service by contacting VA Health Connect—which provides veterans 24/7 access to

The Indian telecommunication market witnessed a distortion in 2016 due to a late-entrant firm's disruptive market entry with deep-discounted pricing; however, Internet penetration marked a considerable increase. Using nationally representative cross-sectional data from the post-market disruption period and an instrumental variable strategy for identification, we estimate the impact of the Internet on the uptake of maternal and child healthcare services. We find that the Internet improves the uptake of antenatal care, institutional delivery, postnatal care, and modern contraceptive use.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a reorganization that will streamline and bolster technology, cybersecurity, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy and policy functions. This reorganization will clarify and consolidate these critical functions, as follows:

Adolescents and young adults are facing elevated rates of mental health issues—and they're also struggling with access to the mental health care they urgently need. When young people express the need for professional help, they often encounter obstacles to seeing a therapist, such as prolonged wait times, limited local access to mental health providers, or financial barriers. In light of these barriers, young people turn to social media and digital mental health apps to attempt to fulfill their needs.

The record shows that Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) recipients regard using access to broadband as critical to their healthcare. A recent study found that 75% of ACP participants fear that losing access to ACP will result in losing access to healthcare. This is consistent with another large-scale survey found that 45% of adults believe that inadequate access to technology, including broadband and computers, is a barrier to telehealth, and this was especially prominent among rural residents and adults over the age of 65. That is, ACP

Michigan Medicaid patients need only Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's signature to be able to pay the same rates for telehealth as they do for in-person doctor's visits. HB 4580, sponsored by Rep. Felicia Brabec, D-Pittsfield, has already passed the Senate and House.

What is the economic benefit of the Affordable Connectivity Program to the health care system? In short, there are many ways that telehealth can reduce costs and improve outcomes.