Health and Media

How can the FCC deliver better broadband to rural health care providers?

Recent years have seen an explosion in demand for telehealth services, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, that has increased the bandwidth needs of rural health care providers. The Federal Communications Commission is proposing changes to its Rural Health Care Program rules that are designed to ensure that rural healthcare providers receive the funding necessary to access broadband and telecommunications services to provide vital healthcare services.

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for March 2022 Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the March Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 16, 2022:

Adrianne B Furniss Announces 2022 Charles Benton Digital Equity Awards

Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Executive Director Adrianne B Furniss announced the 2022 Charles Benton Digital Equity Award winners at The National Digital Inclusion Alliance's Net Inclusion 2022 event. "We are here to honor three people who have demonstrated commitment, innovation, leadership, and collaboration: the very skills we need to navigate us through very trying, interlocking crises—and to steer us to a more equitable, more just society," said Furniss.

Sponsor: 

Federal Communications Commission

Date: 
Thu, 03/03/2022 - 10:00 to 16:30

This virtual event will gather public and private sector thought leaders from a variety of disciplines, including telecommunications and health care, to discuss issues around recognizing broadband connectivity as a “social determinant of health.” Social determinants of health reflect the fact that health begins where we live, learn, work, and play; they are the non-medical factors (including education, health care access, income, and employment) that affect health or can serve as a predictor of one’s health status.



Lawmakers Call For Extension Of Pandemic Telehealth Expansion

Sens Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) led a bipartisan and bicameral group of 45 lawmakers in calling for the extension of expanded coverage of telehealth services to be included in must-pass legislation in February 2022. Provisions from the Schatz-authored CONNECT for Health Act were included in previous COVID-19 relief legislation to allow Medicare beneficiaries in all areas of the country, and in their homes, to utilize telehealth services and to expand the types of health care providers eligible to provide telehealth.

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for Febuary Open Meeting

The Federal Communications Commission announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Friday, February 18, 2022:

White House Requests Input on Developing Digital, Community-Oriented Health Care Services

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) requests input from community health stakeholders, technology developers, and other interested parties about how digital health technologies are used, or could be used in the future, to transform community health, individual wellness, and health equity.

Medicare Beneficiaries’ Use of Telehealth in 2020: Trends by Beneficiary Characteristics and Location

This research report examines changes in Medicare fee-for-service Part B visits and use of telehealth in 2020 during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) by beneficiary characteristics, provider specialty, and location. The analysis found that Medicare in-person visits dropped while telehealth visits increased significantly at the start of the pandemic. Subsequently, telehealth visits declined before plateauing by the end of 2020.  Visits to behavioral health specialists showed the largest increase in telehealth. Most telehealth visits were from the beneficiary's home.

House Commerce Committee Passes Telecommunications Bills

The House Commerce Committee passed 12 bipartisan bills on November 17, 2021. The Committee passed the following telecommunications bills:

Telemedicine Startups Face Uncertain Regulatory Terrain

Telemedicine startups are confronting a hodgepodge of state regulations, complicating their efforts to expand their services nationwide. Companies that provide care over the web or through mobile devices scaled up rapidly during the pandemic, as overcrowding at hospitals led to more patients meeting doctors virtually. Aiding startups’ growth were temporary waivers of restrictions on telemedicine that many states enacted, including a requirement that doctors be licensed in their state to provide virtual care.

Broadband Key to Expanding Telehealth's Pandemic Gains, Say Experts

Telehealth can't succeed without expanding access to affordable broadband internet, witnesses told the Senate Commerce Committee on Oct 7. But extending the regulatory flexibilities around this access granted under the public health emergency, which are slated to expire when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, is also critical, they said, stressing that the benefits of telemedicine can't be understated.

The Facebook Files and the Future of Social Media

We might be tempted to remember this as Mark and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week. A series of damaging articles in the Wall Street Journal, a whistleblower testifying before Congress, and a massive outage of the platform. But Facebook's problems date back much farther than this week. The ramifications could last long into the future—and impact much more than the social media giant.

Waiting for Godot

As you might imagine, we thought there would be exciting news to share today about broadband. Not so much. As we wait for a vote on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (could it come today?

How Americans Have Used — and Struggled With — the Internet During the Pandemic

Pew Research Center released a sweeping report looking at how Americans have used the internet in the pandemic, how reliant they were on digital tools, and some of the struggles they have had as they tried to conduct many of the work-related, educational, social and community activities of their lives online. The headlines from the survey included:

Sen Klobuchar introduces bill to strip social media of health misinformation protections

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced a bill that would strip online platforms such as Facebook and Twitter of liability protections if their technology spreads misinformation about coronavirus vaccines or other public-health emergencies. Sen Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) joins Klobuchar as a co-sponsor.

White House Dispute Exposes Facebook Blind Spot on Misinformation

At the start of the pandemic, a group of data scientists at Facebook held a meeting with executives to ask for resources to help measure the prevalence of misinformation about Covid-19 on the social network. The data scientists said figuring out how many Facebook users saw false or misleading information would be complex, perhaps taking a year a more, according to two people who participated in the meeting.

Biden’s Facebook Attack Followed Months of Frustration Inside White House

President Biden’s attack on Facebook followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant’s handling of vaccine misinformation, according to US officials, bringing into public view tensions that could complicate efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19. The false narratives that Covid-19 vaccines result in widespread death and that the U.S.

Mayo Clinic unveils new mobile health service

Mayo Clinic Health System unveiled its new mobile health clinic on June 28th as a way to improve health care access for those in rural communities. The mobile clinic includes two exam rooms and an onsite laboratory bringing health care directly to patients, for in-person care or virtual care via the onsite telehealth equipment.

Unused Funds Increase Rural Health Care Program Funding for Year 2021

The Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) projects that, $379.97 million in unused funds is available for use in future Rural Health Care (RHC) Program funding years beginning in 2021. The Federal Communications Commission directs USAC to carry these unused funds over to satisfy funding year 2021 RHC Program demand. The overall RHC Program funding cap for 2021 is $612,016,418.

Remarks Of Commissioner Geoffrey Starks Before Ericsson's Broadband For All Online Conference

As we continue to work to bring the pandemic to a close, I am already thinking about the lessons we have learned that should influence how we work toward the goal of broadband for all:

FCC Announces Second Set of Connected Care Pilot Program Projects

A second set of projects selected for the Connected Care Pilot Program were announced by the Federal Communications Commission on June 17.

June Open Meeting Agenda

Here's what the Federal Communications Commission will consider at its June 2021 open meeting.

The social predictors of coronavirus vaccination rates

Where you live, how educated you are, whether you have health insurance and whether you have access to the internet are all correlated with how likely you are to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. None of these factors has anything to do directly with an individual's risk. Instead, this emphasizes, yet again, the powerful role played by social determinants of health.

To Bridge The Digital Divide, Biden Administration Launches Vaccine Hotline

To help overcome the digital divide, the Biden Administration has launched a new vaccination assistance hotline for people who would prefer to get information via telephone. It's part of the administration's push to get 70% of adults in the U.S. vaccinated with at least one dose by July 4. "We know that millions of people in America don't have consistent access to broadband or are uncomfortable navigating the web," wrote Dr. Marcella Nunez Smith, who chairs the Biden administration's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.