{"id":5787,"date":"2025-05-16T18:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=5787"},"modified":"2025-05-16T18:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T18:30:00","slug":"flawed-federal-programs-maroon-rural-americans-in-telehealth-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=5787","title":{"rendered":"Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Limbo\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uncertainty around federal efforts to expand high-speed internet \u2014 and with it telehealth access \u2014 to all Americans swirled fast this week after President Donald Trump vowed to end<\/a> what he called the \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cunconstitutional\u201d Digital Equity Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The act is part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which passed under former President Joe Biden and included $65 billion for broadband infrastructure. But before Trump\u2019s latest sniping on his Truth Social site, his administration had already thrown another of the infrastructure bill\u2019s broadband programs into question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ten days ago, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia sent a letter to Trump\u2019s Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, admonishing him to speed up his department\u2019s review of the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That program had been set to disburse money to states this spring to start connecting homes and businesses, and West Virginia would\u2019ve been among the first recipients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWest Virginians have waited long enough,\u201d Moore Capito wrote<\/a>. Moore Capito noted her state was six weeks away from completing preparations to put the federal money to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than 200 mostly rural counties across the U.S. are in dire need of health care providers and reliable high-speed internet, according to a KFF Health News analysis<\/a>. A quarter of West Virginia\u2019s counties lack these services, making doctor visits either in person or through telehealth difficult or impossible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The analysis also showed that people who live in these counties tend to be sicker and die earlier than most other Americans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Lincoln County, West Virginia, where the Mud River bends through hollows and past cattle farms, stroke survivor Ada Carol Adkins has what she calls \u201cwacky\u201d phone and internet service. It goes out frequently for days at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adkins has one message for her telecommunications carrier and lawmakers: \u201cPlease come and hook me right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not the only West Virginian speaking out about bad connectivity. After receiving a briefing on the potential benefits of fiber and satellite connections, the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council last week adopted a resolution reaffirming its commitment to deploy high-speed fiber-optic lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Grant County, commissioners sent a letter to Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey expressing \u201cstrong support\u201d for the deployment of fiber lines because of the region\u2019s geographic and economic needs. Fiber, they wrote, is more sustainable and affordable than satellite, such as Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink kits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the residents of Grant County wanted Starlink they could purchase it at any time,\u201d the commissioners wrote.<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

USE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n

This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uncertainty around federal efforts to expand high-speed internet \u2014 and with it telehealth access \u2014 to all Americans swirled fast this week after President Donald Trump vowed to end what he called the \u201cracist\u201d and \u201cunconstitutional\u201d Digital Equity Act.\u00a0 The act is part of the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}