Sponsors (3)
The bill preserves HSA eligibility and tax advantages while promoting telehealth access, but it may modestly increase premiums, complicate plan administration, and enable benefit-design choices that weaken cost-sharing incentives.
Patients (including people with chronic conditions and Medicare beneficiaries) can use telehealth services without losing eligibility for HSA-qualified high-deductible health plans, preserving access to remote care.
Taxpayers and small-business owners retain HSA tax advantages when plans waive deductibles for telehealth, preserving tax-advantaged saving incentives for medical expenses.
Hospitals, health systems and employers are more likely to offer or continue telehealth coverage without undermining employees' HSA eligibility, potentially increasing availability of remote care.
Taxpayers and small-business owners may pay modestly higher premiums if plans expand telehealth coverage while preserving HSA status, shifting some costs to enrollees or employers.
Hospitals, health systems and small employers could face added administrative and plan-design complexity implementing the new safe harbor, increasing compliance and administrative costs.
Patients and taxpayers could see weakened consumer cost-sharing incentives if insurers design narrow benefits that cover many low-cost remote services pre-deductible.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows health plans to cover telehealth and other remote-care services without requiring a deductible and still be treated as a high deductible health plan (HDHP) for Health Savings Account (HSA) rules. The change amends the Internal Revenue Code to create a safe harbor so offering deductible-free telehealth will not disqualify a plan from HSA eligibility, and it takes effect for plan years beginning after December 31, 2024.
Introduced February 27, 2025 by Steve Daines · Last progress February 27, 2025