Congress Extends Telehealth Waivers While Avoiding Government Shutdown
Date Posted: Wednesday,
January 08, 2025
On Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, President Biden signed into law H.R. 10545, the "American Relief Act, 2025," narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. H.R. 10545 extends certain telehealth flexibilities through March 31, 2025.
These include:
- Removing geographic requirements and expanding originating sites for telehealth services
- Expanding practitioners eligible to furnish telehealth services
- Extending telehealth services for Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics
- Delaying in-person requirements under Medicare for mental health services furnished through telehealth and telecommunications technology
- Allowing for the furnishing of audio-only telehealth services
- Extending use of telehealth to conduct face-to-face encounters prior to recertification
The bill also includes the extension of the geographic index floor through April 1, 2025, but it does not address Medicare payment cuts. While the bill originally included a 2.5% payment increase to offset the reduction in the Medicare Conversion Factor finalized in the physician fee schedule for 2025, this version does nothing to offset the pending reduction in Medicare reimbursements. Any updates to Medicare payments will have to be addressed in 2025.
Source: aasm.org
