Sponsors (249)
Official title: To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand access to telehealth services, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Michael Thompson · Last progress June 26, 2025
The bill significantly expands and solidifies Medicare telehealth access and oversight—improving convenience, continuity, and equity-focused supports for many patients—at the trade-off of higher federal and program costs, greater administrative burdens, and persistent risks around equity, privacy, and program integrity.
Medicare beneficiaries (including rural, homebound, and mobility-limited patients) will gain substantially expanded and more continuous access to telehealth — removing geographic originating-site limits, keeping telehealth coverage, and eliminating the six-month in-person requirement for telemental health — improving convenience and continuity of care.
Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) can bill telehealth as outpatient/FQHC services under prospective payment rules, supporting clinic revenues and financial stability for care in rural and underserved areas.
The bill strengthens transparency and targeted oversight — requiring outlier identification, provider education/technical assistance, aggregate publishing of telehealth data, annual public comment and periodic reassessment — which should help detect and reduce fraud/improper billing and improve program accountability.
Taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries face higher federal costs because broader telehealth access, waiving practitioner-type limits, new programs/oversight funding, and likely higher utilization can increase Medicare spending and upward pressure on premiums/taxes.
People without reliable internet, smartphones, private space, or digital literacy (low-income, rural, disabled) risk being left behind as care shifts toward telehealth; public release of utilization data and use of unique identifiers also raise privacy and data-security concerns for patients.
Broader telehealth eligibility and broad waiver authority increase program-integrity and fraud risks and create potential variability in access across regions if waiver decisions are uneven, putting Medicare beneficiaries and program finances at risk.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Expands Medicare telehealth access (removes some geographic limits), allows HHS to waive practitioner limits, strengthens oversight, accessibility guidance, quality measures, and data reporting.
Makes permanent and expands several Medicare telehealth flexibilities, removes certain geographic restrictions beginning October 1, 2025, and gives the HHS Secretary authority to waive practitioner-type limits when clinically appropriate. Strengthens oversight, reporting, provider education, accessibility requirements, and funds the HHS Office of Inspector General for telehealth oversight. Requires HHS/CMS to publish telehealth utilization and outcome data, study strategies to increase beneficiary engagement (with emphasis on underserved groups), update quality measures to include telehealth, and create training and resources for beneficiaries, clinicians, and vendors. Provides modest targeted funding and rulemaking/implementation timelines for these actions.