Telehealth Will Die In 3 Weeks Without Congressional Action

Telehealth will end on December 31 unless Congress takes urgent action to pass the Telehealth Moderniztion Act of 2024.Before COVID, Medicare provided limited coverage for telehealth and mainly limited it to rural patients. It required them to go to a local hospital or clinic to interact with a specialist until early 2020. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare greatly expanded coverage to include patients anywhere, allowing them to access specialty care from home. Expanded services also included physical and occupational therapy, emergency department visits, and nursing facility care via telehealth. This expansion provided care to Medicare’s 64 million enrollees and broadened pre-existing access for 76 million low-income Americans on Medicaid.