Sponsors (37)
The bill expands and makes permanent telehealth-based in-home cardiac and pulmonary rehab—improving access and giving hospitals a billing path—at the trade-off of higher Medicare costs, new administrative requirements for providers, and the risk of uneven local adoption.
Medicare beneficiaries (including patients with chronic cardiac or pulmonary conditions) can receive cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation at home via telehealth, expanding access to necessary rehab services.
Hospitals and health systems can designate a patient’s home as a provider-based location and bill for in-home rehab services, supporting continuity of care and financial support for provider delivery of home-based rehabilitation.
Permanently preserves COVID-era telehealth flexibilities for cardiac and pulmonary rehab programs, giving programs, providers, and patients stable policy and planning certainty.
Expanding telehealth coverage and permitting hospital billing for in-home rehab is likely to increase Medicare spending and overall program costs, which could affect taxpayers and Medicare sustainability.
If hospitals and providers choose not to adopt provider-based home programs, some Medicare beneficiaries—especially in rural or underserved areas—may still lack access to in-home rehab, producing uneven access geographically.
Hospitals and providers may face new administrative requirements and need to meet HHS standards to designate homes as provider-based, imposing compliance costs and operational burdens on health systems and staff.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Permanently allows Medicare-covered cardiac, intensive cardiac, and pulmonary rehabilitation services to be delivered by telehealth to a patient in their home and treats the patient’s home as an eligible originating site for those services. It directs HHS to set standards so a patient’s home can be designated as a provider-based part of a hospital (consistent with prior Hospital Without Walls waivers) and to include these rehabilitation programs among specified Medicare telehealth services; those rules take effect when the Secretary issues them. The bill does not appropriate funds; it changes Medicare payment/originating-site policy and requires HHS/CMS rulemaking and operational standards that will affect hospitals, rehabilitation providers, and Medicare beneficiaries who need cardiac or pulmonary rehab at home.
Introduced January 28, 2025 by John Joyce · Last progress January 28, 2025