Consultant Says Federal Health Officials Have More Work to Do in Fixing Seniors’ Broadband Adoption
Federal policy makers can help accelerate broadband adoption by the elderly -- but the hardest work has to be done by health officials, not the FCC, health IT consultant Jim Bialick said Tuesday. Medicare and Medicaid will receive $27 billion in federal funds this year, but “you're looking at a population that is not using technology for its healthcare,” Bialick said on a panel at a conference in Washington. One of the things preventing better use of technology in medicine for instance, is Medicare’s refusal to reimburse the expense of video conferencing in big cities, Bialick said. “That’s a monster barrier there. You're looking at people who are essentially not going to interact with the way the system is evolving,” he said. He also urged Washington policy makers to focus on “usable” technology, like Skype or Facebook. “There are significant policy barriers to implementing that,” Bialick said.
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FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn kicked off Tuesday’s conference, which was sponsored by Project Get Older Adults onLine. She renewed her calls for a national digital literacy corps, which she said would help the elderly make a smooth transition to the latest technology. “People learn and are comfortable with persons from their own community,” she said. “We would go a long way to connecting all Americans and all seniors to broadband technology.” She told the story of her great-uncle Joe, a survivor of the U.S. Arizona, which was sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. “When you see a person’s comfort zone and friendship zone and family zone literally shrink, you get more motivated … to widen their sphere,” Clyburn said. Social networking sites can make a big difference -- and not just for the elderly, Clyburn said. “You don’t want all that talent and all that history to go to waste,” she said.
Less than a third of Americans aged 70 or over have adopted broadband, Connected Nation Chief Policy Counsel Thomas Koutsky said. Health experts estimate the country could save $700 billion over the next 20 years by using telemedicine technologies. Koutsky said the FCC could help by increasing Lifeline payments for citizens to buy broadband as well as telephone service. “Policy can make a difference,” he said.
But Technet Vice President John Horrigan said the Lifeline proceeding shouldn’t just focus on cost. His research found that cost is only one obstacle to taking on broadband. “Innovation is the answer there,” he said. “Innovation not only in service itself but also in service plans.”