Sponsors (74)
This is not an official government website.
Copyright © 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Introduced April 2, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress April 2, 2025
Expands and makes long-term changes to Medicare telehealth coverage by removing many geographic and originating-site limits, broadening which practitioners and facilities can furnish telehealth, and allowing audio-only and other technologies. It adds new fraud oversight and education for outlier billers, funds HHS OIG work on telehealth oversight, and requires HHS/CMS to publish data, update quality measures, and create accessibility and training resources for beneficiaries, clinicians, and vendors. The bill also creates targeted protections and exceptions for Tribal facilities, allows some telehealth use for hospice recertification (with a GAO review), requires studies and reports on telehealth access and engagement (with an emphasis on underserved populations), and sets specific deadlines and effective dates for the main program changes and reporting requirements.
The bill greatly expands and standardizes Medicare telehealth access, technology, and oversight—improving convenience and reach for many patients and supporting providers—while increasing federal spending, raising privacy and quality risks for some clinical situations, and imposing new compliance demands that require strong implementation to prevent fraud and unequal impacts.
Medicare beneficiaries — including people in rural areas, people with disabilities, and some Indigenous communities — gain much broader and more convenient access to telehealth (audio-visual and audio-only), hospice recertification by telehealth, and removal of certain origin-site and in-person requirements, improving reach and continuity of care.
Clinicians, FQHCs, RHCs, and community clinics — through payment updates, waiver authority for practitioner types, and clearer payment rules — receive greater flexibility and revenue support for delivering telehealth, which can expand provider capacity and specialty access for patients.
Taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries — federal agencies receive new oversight and transparency tools (OIG funding, CMS outlier notices, aggregate published billing data) and clinician education to detect and reduce improper telehealth billing and improve program integrity.
Taxpayers and Medicare beneficiaries — making broad telehealth coverage permanent and paying FQHCs/RHCs for telehealth, plus new oversight and reporting activities, will increase federal spending and could raise Medicare costs, premiums, or deficits over time.
Taxpayers, beneficiaries, and providers — expanding practitioner eligibility and telehealth scope raises the risk of fraud, improper billing, and waste unless oversight is effective, while provider notifications and audits create compliance burdens.
Some patients — reliance on audio-only telehealth and removal of certain in-person requirements (e.g., six-month check for telemental health) could reduce diagnostic quality or continuity of care for certain conditions, and a shift to telehealth could reduce in-person availability in some areas.