Governor discusses telehealth, broadband needs

Two of the conversations at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Missouri focused around telehealth and broadband.

Now, almost five months since the first positive case in Butler County, those conversations are still going on.

Gov. Mike Parson met with officials Tuesday afternoon at FCC Behavioral Health to continue them.

Since COVID started, Parson said, the state has put about $5.2 million into broadband and $3.2 million into telehealth.

The administration also reduced regulations in those areas.

Telehealth

According to documents provided by FCC, between July 2019 and mid-March 2020, FCC provided 8,177 telehealth services.

Since mid-March, the organization has provided 128,188 services.

Multiple officials relayed to Parson during their meeting that increased options for telehealth are benefiting everyone involved.

This includes providers, students and those receiving drug therapy.

On the student side, it means providers get to see into the student’s living situation, said Stacy Emmerson, nurse practitioner.

Normally, families would put on their best behavior before coming to FCC, she explained.

By video conferencing with the student, providers are able to hear the environment behind the student and generally get a better idea of the student’s regular situation.

“You’re seeing what they’re really living in,” She said. “...It really brings in a lot of the reality of the situation.”

Noble Shaver, clinical officer for adult SUD services, said the addition of telehealth has benefitted those coming to FCC for drug and alcohol related issues.

Opening up telehealth, he explained, gave them access to a medical doctor who specializes in addiction medicine when the pandemic could have otherwise kept them from receiving medication.

FCC started providing telehealth about 10-15 years ago, said Dr. Ravdeep Khanuja, medical director.

“We started early, but this (COVID) is a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It pushed services in rural areas, which was needed for a long time.”

In general, it helps patients by cutting out the drive time and expense they have in order to get to an office, Khanuja continued.

Various people with FCC asked Parson to be able to continue providing these telemedicine services after the pandemic calms down.

Broadband

One limitation, they all agreed, with telemedicine is the broadband infrastructure in the area.

CEO Randy Ray said FCC recently received a grant to purchase 300 broadband hotspot connections to help patients who don’t have access to the service.

Parson said he feels as though the state has been expanding broadband access over the last two years, but there is more work to do.

He discussed working with providers to make sure they’re reaching out into rural communities where there’s a lack of or slow connections.

“We need to be able to promote it and we need to be able to fund it,” he said. “If we can get electricity in every house, we can get broadband in every house. We just need to focus on that.”

Ray said he felt as though the meeting went well and wanted to thank Parson for coming out to the area.

“Him being able to share his information with us; hear it firsthand from him (helped),” Ray said. “Then for him to hear our staff tell him the needs, the problems that we’re having in his area.”