This legislation expands telehealth for people on Medicare. It removes most location limits for where you can be during a telehealth visit, lets more types of clinicians treat patients by video or phone, and supports care at community clinics and in tribal and Native Hawaiian health facilities . It also ends the six-month in-person visit rule for mental health care by telehealth and allows telehealth to help with hospice recertification and during public health emergencies . To protect patients and taxpayer dollars, it strengthens oversight and education to prevent abusive billing and keep care safe .

Key points

• Access: Starting October 1, 2025, Medicare removes most patient-location limits for telehealth and can allow more kinds of practitioners to provide it. Community health centers and rural health clinics can keep offering telehealth and be paid under their normal systems starting that same date .
• Tribal and Native Hawaiian care: For Indian Health Service, tribal, and Native Hawaiian health facilities, patient-location limits won’t apply beginning January 1, 2026.
• Mental health, hospice, and emergencies: The six-month in‑person visit rule for telemental health is repealed; telehealth can be used to help recertify hospice care; and HHS can quickly waive telehealth rules during public health emergencies .
• Program safeguards: Providers may give patients certain technology for telehealth or remote monitoring if they follow set rules; there’s $3 million per year (2026–2030) for added audits and enforcement; HHS will identify and notify “outlier” billers and share aggregate data, with education for those flagged .
• Help and transparency: Within 6 months, HHS will release easy-to-use resources and training for patients (including people with limited English or disabilities) and for providers. Within 180 days, HHS will review quality measures for telehealth, and CMS will post regular, quarterly data on telehealth use and costs .