Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have heightened the realization thataccess to medical care — both doctors and health facilities — canbe cut off just when seniors may need it most. But even thoughdigital communications and telemedicine can help to bridge this gap, manyseniors don’t even know whether their health plan offers it — andthat’s if they are digitally connected enough to access it.

Business Insider reports on a survey from HealthMine, whichfinds that 57 percent of Medicare health plan members aged 65+ saythey are unsure if their health plan offers telemedicine; another31 percent say that telemedicine is not offered by their plan.

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The growing necessity of digitally connecting seniors to healthcare services, the report says, has launched a debate on the pros and cons ofexpanding coverage of telehealth and telemedicine services underMedicare Parts A and B. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commissionhas been mandated by Congress to study the use of telehealthservices; it is due to report findings on the matter by March 15,2018.

Of course, telemedicine isn’t going to work if Medicare planmembers aren’t digitally connected. And that could be an issue,since the survey also finds that 79 percent of seniors do not haveeasy access to their electronic medical records. And that isn’teven taking into account the difficulty of accessing electronicrecords in the event of power outages caused by such crisis eventsas Irma and Harvey.

It could be an uphill battle anyway for a number of seniors,since the vast majority of Medicare plan members indicate in thesurvey that when it comes to their communication preferences, 48percent would rather deal with their plan via either voice orphone. Just 31 percent prefer digital communication and 21 percentare holding onto snail mail as their preferred method.

Still, “These hurricanes have underscored the importance ofevery person being digitally connected to their health,” BryceWilliams, president and CEO of HealthMine, says in a statement.Williams adds, “We are working hand in hand with health plans toaccelerate digital processes and analytics.”