The House of Representatives voted 416-12 to create a longer extension for certain Medicare telehealth coverage flexibilities after the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) ends. Medicare has used its authority granted under the PHE to waive many of its restrictive Medicare coverage policies. There is bipartisan support to permanently modernize the statute that governs Medicare telehealth coverage to make these services more accessible to beneficiaries. However, there are policy disagreements about the fine details for how to make these changes.
The COVID-19 PHE could end before Congress determines how to permanently expand these coverage policies. Therefore, Congress recently passed legislation, signed into law by President Biden, to proactively extend some of these policies for 151 days after the PHE ends. H.R. 4040, the Advancing Telehealth Beyond COVID-19 Act, would further extend these coverage policies through the end of 2024.
The temporary policies that would be extended under H.R. 4040 include:
- Removing the geographic requirements that telehealth beneficiaries be located in a rural area.
- Removing the originating site requirement to allow beneficiaries to receive telehealth services from their home.
- Adding occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language therapists and audiologists in the list of Medicare telehealth-eligible provider types.
- Allowing mental health services to be furnished via telehealth without the patient first having an in-person visit.
- Covering some telehealth services if they are furnished using an audio-only communication method.
Other Medicare telehealth flexibilities created during the PHE would expire when the PHE ends without additional action by Congress to extend those provisions.
H.R. 4040 now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The Advocacy Council – ADVOCATING FOR ALLERGISTS AND THEIR PATIENTS
