ATA launches new digital readiness benchmarking tool

The American Telemedicine Association, or ATA, has released an enhanced benchmarking tool to measure U.S. communities' digital readiness.

The Digital Infrastructure Score and Mapping tool is an upgraded version of the ATA digital infrastructure assessment tool launched in 2023. The new tool will assess whether certain areas are equipped to adopt digital and virtual care technologies by gathering various infrastructure measures, including broadband access, internet speed and device availability, and applying relative weights to the combined data.

In addition, the tool offers a heatmap interface showing digital readiness differences by ZIP code or county. This will enable users to identify the factors that impact digital readiness scores.

By identifying communities' digital readiness, the tool aims to support healthcare providers, payers, public health administrators and policymakers in making needed broadband investments, improving policy evaluation and funding proposals and enabling multi-sector collaboration. The Peterson Health Technology Institute funded the development of the upgraded tool. 

"By building on the original frameworks developed by our CEO advisory group, we were able to incorporate additional data sets, develop enhanced data visualization tools, and improve the design interface and user experience for these tools," said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO of the ATA, in the press release. "Our Digital Infrastructure Score and Mapping tool makes digital readiness visible and empowers health, policy, and community leaders to make smarter, more informed decisions for the deployment of digital health services."

The new tool comes as the future of telehealth access hangs in the balance. At the time of this story's publication, Medicare telehealth flexibilities are slated to expire on Sept. 30, 2025. The flexibilities, enacted during the COVID-19 public health crisis, include expanding originating sites for telehealth services and continuing coverage for audio-only telehealth within the Medicare program.

The House passed a continuing resolution that would fund the government -- and extend the telehealth flexibilities -- through Nov. 21, 2025. However, the Senate failed to advance it.

The ATA has been a leading voice in urging lawmakers to act before the flexibilities expire. In a statement emailed to Virtual Healthcare on Sept. 22, Kyle Zebley, executive director of ATA Action and senior vice president of public policy at the ATA, said, "We are asking – urging – Congress to not leave millions of patients and beleaguered healthcare providers dangling on the telehealth cliff while they deliberate over dynamics around a government shutdown."

"We appreciate that both the House and Senate have been working hard to advance a short-term funding bill. But with Congress out of session this week and not returning until September 29, that leaves only one day before the telehealth flexibilities expire," Zebley continued.

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.