Two family doctors who are stuck with Verizon DSL say their Internet service is so slow and unreliable that they often can't view online medical records and are having trouble complying with federal guidelines.

Doctors Lori Talbot and Christopher Ballas run a practice in Fairfield Township, New Jersey, and are among numerous people complaining that Verizon hasn't properly maintained its old copper lines or upgraded its network to fiber in parts of New Jersey. Officials in 16 South Jersey cities and towns petitioned the state to investigate Verizon last December, and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has scheduled a public hearing for August 4 to let residents and businesses detail the network's failings.

Talbot and Ballas described their office's problems in a letter to local officials and were profiled last week by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Comcast lines stop about a mile from the doctors' office, leaving them without high-speed cable Internet. Since Verizon hasn't wired up the area with fiber, they must make do with Verizon DSL.

Verizon service "has so deteriorated that some days the doctors can't read e-mail for many minutes or do simple online tasks such as registering deaths with the Department of Health and Senior Services," the Inquirer wrote. The story continued:

"Looking at patients' X-rays, MRIs, or CAT scans is not even a possibility because it takes too much bandwidth," Ballas said in an examination room. "They don't load." But the real problem for Ballas and Talbot—and the one with financial repercussions—is the federal government's giant Medicare insurance program, which has been requiring practices such as theirs to make patient records available through an online portal. Without a high-speed connection, Ballas and Talbot can't comply with Medicare guidelines for its "Meaningful Use" program of incentives for electronic health records and may face penalties if they don't comply.

The Talbot/Ballas letter to Fairfield Mayor Benjamin Byrd, written in January and recently included in a filing to the BPU, says they operate "the only primary care practice for the area" and accommodate 6,000 to 8,000 visits a year. "The copper lines frequently hum and intermittently fail, especially during wet weather or high winds," they wrote.

The doctors run an internal server to hold medical records, but it is aging, and they rely heavily on the Internet for access to electronic health records and prescriptions. If things get worse, they worry that they "would be forced to move our office out of the area in order to have high-speed Internet access."

The doctors say they met with Verizon officials two years ago to explain the problems but never heard from the company again, according to the Inquirer story. Since that article published, Verizon says it has "reached out to this customer in the last few days and will be meeting with them again to go over some options they may have with us aside from DSL," according to a statement given to FierceTelecom.

Evading broadband obligations

In 1993, Verizon predecessor New Jersey Bell signed a deal with state officials establishing a different form of price regulation that was more favorable to the company. In exchange, the company agreed to provide broadband of "up to 45Mbps and higher" to every business and residential customer in its territory by 2010. But with many cities and towns stuck on copper networks that don't support such speeds, Verizon in 2014 led an astroturf campaign helping it win a settlement with state officials that reduced its obligations.

"Instead of just getting service automatically, people who want broadband from Verizon would have to complete a 'bonafide retail request' process and prove that they and at least 34 neighbors can't get service from anyone else," we wrote at the time. "Even then, Verizon would have nine months to comply and could meet its newly lessened obligation by making 4G cellular service available through its subsidiary, Verizon Wireless."

Verizon has passed 2.1 million New Jersey premises with fiber, while there are about 3.2 million households in the state.

We contacted Verizon this morning for further comment on the doctors' situation and the upcoming hearing and will provide an update if we get one. In the past, Verizon has said it "is investing to maintain reliable service" in rural parts of New Jersey and that it has spent $100 million on the South Jersey copper network in the past two years.

Verizon is facing similar complaints in multiple states. In October, the mayors of 14 major East Coast cities wrote to Verizon saying that the company has failed to provide fiber to millions of residents, in some cases failing to meet contractual or legislative deadlines.

UPDATE: Verizon responded to Ars, saying that it will be meeting with the doctors later this week. As for the upcoming hearing, Verizon said, "we’ve had a very good dialogue with town officials and have a few projects underway to make further improvements to the copper network in South Jersey."