On May 8, the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means voted 41-0 to advance legislation that would extend key current Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 2026. The Senate bill is titled, “The Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act,” and it would extend the key Medicare telehealth policies that are currently set to expire in January 2025 through December 2026.
On May 16, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee voted 21-0 to send a bill titled, “The Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024” to the full committee for consideration. Like the Senate bill, this House bill would extend the key pandemic-era Medicare telehealth policies through the 2026 calendar year.
In December 2022, President Biden signed into law a bill that extended these key Medicare telehealth relaxed regulatory requirements, including patient geographic and physical location waivers, through 2024. During the pandemic, these policies were tied to HHS’s COVID-19 public health emergency declaration and had to be extended every 90 days. For the past several years, provider and pro-telehealth industry groups have pushed Congress to make these changes permanent, but Congress continues to opt for temporary extensions.