House Approves Extensions of Hospital at Home, Telehealth Flexibilities

On Tuesday, February 3rd, the House passed a spending package to end the partial government shutdown. Congress passed a five-bill package to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, including funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The package includes a five-year extension of the Acute Hospital Care at Home program and the extension of telehealth flexibilities through the end of 2027.

The Medicare telehealth waivers expired on January 30; however, the new language in the bill is expected to apply retroactively and cover the lapse period. This deal will restore continuity to Medicare telehealth coverage and prevent a lengthy return to pre-pandemic policies, the Center for Connected Health Policy explained earlier.

On LinkedIn, Constantinos Michaelidis, medical director of Hospital at Home at UMass Memorial Health, wrote, "So excited to share that after the last 10 years of hard operational work in Hospital at Home in the United States (and frankly decades of research in the United States and abroad), the U.S. House of Representatives just passed a five-year hospital at home and two-year telehealth extension that is expected to be signed by the President later today and provide the regulatory stability to allow Hospital at Home programs across the U.S. to continue to invest and grow. Congress has done its job, now it's time for us to do ours!"

“This five-year extension is a critical step toward making hospital-at-home a durable part of our healthcare system,” said Krista Drobac, executive director of Moving Health Home, in a statement. “Long-term certainty allows providers to plan, invest, and scale these programs in ways that benefit patients, caregivers, and communities. Crucially, it also allows large-scale collection of data and evidence that we feel confident will definitively convince lawmakers to make this program permanent.”

The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) stated that it was “pleased to see Congress pass critical healthcare extenders along with other policies to protect the financial sustainability of medical groups and ensure continued access for Medicare beneficiaries. The extension of the 1.0 work RVU GPCI floor through the end of 2026 and of the telehealth flexibilities through the end of 2027, along with the reinstatement of the Advanced APM incentive payment for 2026 and delay of clinical laboratory cuts until 2027, all provide much-needed financial and operational relief to practices nationwide. These intermediate-term solutions will provide a degree of stability that practices have not enjoyed for over a year. We look forward to working with Congress to develop permanent solutions to these policies and ensure long-term stability for practices."

While the package includes some long-sought policies that begin to address high healthcare costs, it also overlooks urgent needs, such as extending premium tax credits and implementing broader reforms, as noted by the healthcare advocacy group Families USA.

“We appreciate that the government funding package includes some initial steps on honest hospital billing and oversight of the middlemen who negotiate prescription drug prices, but we have so much more to do to provide real relief for Americans struggling with healthcare costs,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, in a statement. “Congress appropriately rejected many of President Trump’s proposed cuts to public health, research, and services and extended funding for community clinics, but did not help more broadly on healthcare affordability that is desperately needed.”

Families USA announced in a news release that the package includes bipartisan healthcare priorities the group has long supported, such as transparency measures for hospital billing called “honest billing” and increased oversight of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to help reduce drug costs. Additionally, the organization stated, the package provides essential funding extensions for community health centers and will allocate $116.8 billion to HHS, an increase over FY 2025 funding, rejecting several cuts and restructuring efforts aimed at eliminating key public health, research, and other programs proposed in President Trump’s budget.