![]() 8 “ Are states ready to close the digital divide?,” McKinsey, June 1, 2022. Many people also lack the requisite digital literacy to use them. Even for households in areas with high-speed internet infrastructure, engaging with virtual-health services and tools may be difficult or impossible because the broadband available to them is too slow, too expensive, or both. ![]() 7 “ Are states ready to close the digital divide?,” McKinsey, June 1, 2022. About 24 million American households lack access to high-speed internet. Thanks to increased patient acceptance and the value it can create for providers and payers, including federal and state insurance programs, telehealth is poised to become a permanent care delivery model.īut not all Americans can take advantage of telehealth or other virtual-health services. 6 Oleg Bestsennyy, Michelle Chmielewski, Anne Koffel, and Amit Shah, “ From facility to home: How healthcare could shift by 2025,” McKinsey, February 1, 2022. Even as in-office visits ramped back up, telehealth usage still exceeded prepandemic levels. Patients give telehealth high marks for providing timely access to physicians for consultations, convenience, and improved healthcare experiences. 5 “Advancing broadband connectivity as a social determinant of health,” Federal Communications Commission, Febru“ Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-COVID-19 reality?,” McKinsey, July 9, 2021. Within the US healthcare system, adoption and acceptance of telehealth grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unequal access to virtual-health services We also explore seven actions designed to help state governments reimagine health and human services to capture the full value of their investments in virtual health. This article examines the current disparities in access to broadband service-and, by extension, virtual-care access-as well as the opportunity for states to facilitate access to e-health for all Americans. These in turn could improve chronic-condition management and care quality and outcomes while lowering costs and encouraging people to engage more actively in their healthcare. ![]() They could also boost ancillary services such as digital health data management and analytics as well as population healthcare management. States that build out broadband infrastructure and provide wraparound support such as access to devices and digital-literacy programs could increase resident access to virtual health. Indeed, broadband access is increasingly seen as a social determinant of health (SDoH). This population could benefit significantly from virtual-health interventions because it has higher-than-average numbers of Medicaid and Medicaid–Medicare (dual) beneficiaries, higher rates of chronic disease, and less reliable access to transportation to reach care delivery locations. 4 “ Closing the digital divide in Black America,” McKinsey, January 18, 2023. Minority and low-income households are more likely to lack access to the broadband infrastructure needed to engage in telehealth for example, Black households in dense urban areas are twice as likely as their White counterparts to lack a high-speed internet subscription. The federal commitment to bring high-speed internet to communities without access opens new opportunities to advance health equity via virtual health. But with the US federal government making more than $100 billion available to close the digital divide, the funding exists to help states make virtual health available to all. ![]() 3 “ Are states ready to close the US digital divide?,” McKinsey, June 1, 2022. Yet tens of millions of people in the United States face a significant barrier to telehealth-a form of virtual health 2 We define virtual health as a range of solutions for healthcare provider–patient interactions to occur outside of in-person visits, including telehealth (video or phone), text-based care, e-triage, and remote monitoring.-because they either lack access to affordable broadband or face other hurdles to getting online. 1 Oleg Bestsennyy, Greg Gilbert, Alex Harris, and Jennifer Rost, “ Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-COVID-19 reality?,” McKinsey, JMathangi Radha, Shubham Singhal, and Nithya Vinjamoori, “ The next frontier of care delivery in healthcare,” McKinsey, March 24, 2022. The use of telehealth soared during the pandemic, and digital technology is becoming more embedded in US healthcare delivery models.
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