Medicare Coverage for Telehealth Extended Through March
Richard Eisenberg wrote for FortuneWell on January 10 that “[P]eople on Medicare won’t get the two years of continued coverage for telehealth appointments and five years’ for acute hospital-at-home programs that were in the bill Congress nearly voted into law in December 2024.”
Eisenberg explained that the new administration stated the 1,500-page legislation needed trimming. “Those Medicare coverage extensions—known as waivers—didn’t make it into the bill.”
If the waivers are not extended, Medicare will only allow mental health telehealth appointments if beneficiaries first see health providers in person. Coverage for acute hospital-at-home will be discontinued.
The American Telehealth Association (ATA) published a letter on January 20 urging the new administration to implement a permanent telehealth framework: “Telehealth plays a critical role in our evolving healthcare system and has proven to expand access to care, reduce costs, assist with provider shortages, and overall help the healthcare system become more efficient and effective.”
