Internet price, speed, and disparity: The case of rural healthcare providers in the United States

TY - JOUR

T1 - Internet price, speed, and disparity

T2 - The case of rural healthcare providers in the United States

AU - Rabbani, Maysam

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2024/3

Y1 - 2024/3

N2 - Healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients are increasingly relying on telehealth services (healthcare provision over the internet) to provide and seek care. It turns internet access disparities into a health equity concern, i.e., poor internet access can contribute to poor health. In response, two federal programs in the United States – Healthcare Connect Fund and the Telecom Program – subsidize internet access for HCPs in rural or remote areas. I use a two-part pricing approach to examine the evolution of internet speed and price for HCPs that received internet subsidies during 2014–2020. I find that HCP internet is annually getting 30.77% faster and 5.23% cheaper. During the same period, the cost to subscribe to an internet service and the cost to raise bandwidth have annually fallen by 5.02% and 7.83%, respectively. A comparison of the trends between rural and urban HCPs suggests that the rural/urban divide in internet access has shrunk during the study years. It indicates that the subsidy programs likely have achieved their stated goal of improving rural internet.

AB - Healthcare providers (HCPs) and patients are increasingly relying on telehealth services (healthcare provision over the internet) to provide and seek care. It turns internet access disparities into a health equity concern, i.e., poor internet access can contribute to poor health. In response, two federal programs in the United States – Healthcare Connect Fund and the Telecom Program – subsidize internet access for HCPs in rural or remote areas. I use a two-part pricing approach to examine the evolution of internet speed and price for HCPs that received internet subsidies during 2014–2020. I find that HCP internet is annually getting 30.77% faster and 5.23% cheaper. During the same period, the cost to subscribe to an internet service and the cost to raise bandwidth have annually fallen by 5.02% and 7.83%, respectively. A comparison of the trends between rural and urban HCPs suggests that the rural/urban divide in internet access has shrunk during the study years. It indicates that the subsidy programs likely have achieved their stated goal of improving rural internet.

KW - Internet speed

KW - Internet subsidy

KW - Telehealth

KW - Two-part pricing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176440570&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102674

DO - 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102674

M3 - Article

SN - 0308-5961

VL - 48

JO - Telecommunications Policy

JF - Telecommunications Policy

IS - 2

M1 - 102674

ER -