Congress Nears Renewal of Medicare Telehealth Coverage

Congress is about to take effect an authorization for two years of Medicare telehealth services for older adults, renewing pandemic-era coverage in the government’s largest health insurance program.

Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday provides some relief for older Americans covered by Medicare health insurance who have relied on their doctors to get paid for virtual visits since such reimbursements began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Legislation extending Medicare telehealth benefits for health care providers through December 31, 2027 heads to the U.S. Senate, where approval is expected.

“The U.S. House of Representatives today stood strongly in favor of telehealth and passed legislation in the Minibus package with broad bipartisan support, including year-long extensions for several critical telehealth provisions,” said Alexis Apple, deputy executive director of the U.S. Government’s Affiliated Policy and Legislative Division. American Telemedicine Association.

ATA Action’s advocacy Board member companies include: Amazon, which has expanded its telehealth services over the past year, and telehealth providers Hims & Hers, Lifepoint Health, Teladoc Health and Circle Medical, a subsidiary of UCSF Health.

“Telehealth has proven to be a valuable, reliable option for healthcare,” Apple said. “Affirming these expansions is the right thing to do, and we trust that our telehealth champions in both chambers will continue to do the right thing to preserve access to care for millions of Americans who need care, including our most vulnerable and underserved populations.”

Although lobbies for the extended telehealth benefit, including the America Medical Association, didn’t get what they wanted in the form of a permanent extension of Medicare payments, Apple said that “these extensions are an important step forward.”

The AMA and others said the expiration of Medicare telehealth reimbursement during last year’s government shutdown “greatly reduced access to care.” The AMA cited a Brown University study of electronic health record data, which found that fee-for-service telemedicine visits fell 24% nationally during the first 17 days of the shutdown. “Several states saw declines of nearly 40% or even more, highlighting the sensitivity of access to policy disruptions,” the AMA said in January.

The House-passed expansion allows providers to get paid for telehealth services delivered at any location, including a patient’s home instead of just a doctor’s office or hospital and certain other care locations.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) first began temporarily paying physicians for providing telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries on March 6, 2020, when the pandemic began. At the time, former CMS administrator Seema Verma said the changes allowed seniors to “communicate with their physicians without having to travel to a healthcare facility so they can limit the risk of exposure and spread of this virus.”

The idea was to give physicians and other clinicians the flexibility to treat Medicare beneficiaries, opening the door for a range of providers to enter and expand their telehealth platforms to more Americans. That flexibility, advocates of such coverage said, should remain as a way to improve health outcomes and help older Americans maintain access to care.

“The AMA commends Congressional leaders for finding common ground,” said Dr. David H. Aizuss, chairman of the AMA Board of Trustees, in a statement earlier this week commending members of Congress for a health care package that includes extending telehealth coverage for two years. “As physicians, we know that the best results come from focused attention on what’s best for patients. That’s what happened here.”