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

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  • Rabbani, Maysam

Abstract

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.

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  • Rabbani, Maysam, 2024. "Internet price, speed, and disparity: The case of rural healthcare providers in the United States," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:telpol:v:48:y:2024:i:2:s0308596123001854
    DOI: 10.1016/j.telpol.2023.102674
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