This bill makes COVID-era flexibility permanent so people on Medicare can get cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation at home through telehealth. It allows these rehab visits to happen from a patient’s home and lifts certain location limits that used to get in the way of telehealth for these services .

The Department of Health and Human Services must set rules so a patient’s home can be treated like a hospital-based care site for these rehab programs and add these services to Medicare’s list of covered telehealth options. Those standards take effect as soon as HHS issues them.

• Who is affected: Medicare patients who need cardiac or pulmonary rehab; hospitals and rehab programs that provide this care.
• What changes: Rehab visits can be done by telehealth from home, with certain geographic limits removed; HHS will issue standards to make this work, including treating the home as a hospital-based site for these services .
• When: The new standards apply once HHS issues them; the bill’s goal is to make these at-home telehealth options permanent under Medicare .