Hospital CIOs are likely to be debating the subject of net neutrality in the near future.
Net neutrality essentially means that all parties sending data via the Internet are treated equally by carriers like Verizon and AT&T. Corporations, or hospitals for that matter, can’t simply pay more for faster transmission speed. That’s the current state of affairs, but it may change.
According to a recent report in Modern Healthcare, the wireless telecommunications industry’s trade group, CTIA, has been circulating a letter to healthcare organizations “asking their support to oppose regulation that would ensure continued net neutrality.”
But is net neutrality good or bad for healthcare?
Critics of net neutrality say that paying for a “fast lane” can boost innovation by providing an incentive to Internet service providers to build more infrastructure. But paying a toll for speed could negatively impact on efforts to encourage interoperability in healthcare. As the report in Modern Healthcare notes, “The healthcare system is hoping to encourage more data sharing, often through Health Information Exchanges. A charge for faster service provides a disincentive to sharing overall, and in particular hurts HIEs—which are non-profit and often struggle to find the proper business model under current conditions.”
To read more about this, see this article in Modern Healthcare.
