Telehealth Coverage (Medicare)
Current understanding
Federal policy on Medicare coverage of telehealth services, including audio-only and at-home modalities, and targeted extensions for underserved populations. Many pandemic-era flexibilities have relied on temporary extensions, with legislative activity aimed at making specific coverage permanent. Current activity is early-stage (introduced bills) rather than enacted policy.
Evidence log
- 2026-10-29 — To amend the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize a program under which the Secretary of Health and Human Services makes grants to State professional licensing boards for the development and implementation of policies to reduce statutory and regulatory barriers to telemedicine, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with telemedicine-licensing-barriers: Interstate licensure flexibility complements Medicare telehealth coverage by expanding the pool of providers patients can reach remotely. (novelty: 2)
- 2025-04-28 — Expanding Remote Monitoring Access Act: cross-connection with medicare: Both address extending or restoring COVID-era Medicare flexibilities — telehealth waivers and RPM data-collection thresholds — for remote care delivery. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-08-31 — Promoting Telehealth in Rural America: cross-connection with rural-health-care-program: FCC subsidies for rural provider broadband underpin the connectivity that Medicare telehealth flexibilities depend on in rural areas. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-04-02 — EASE Act: cross-connection with ease-act-rural-specialty-care: The EASE Act’s rural specialty telehealth demonstration would operate alongside broader Medicare telehealth coverage rules, testing a nonprofit-network delivery model within that framework. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-04-01 — EASE Act of 2025: cross-connection with critical-access-hospitals: EASE Act would use CAHs (alongside FQHCs, RHCs, and REHs) as delivery sites for a CMMI telehealth specialty-care model, linking rural facility policy to Medicare telehealth coverage design. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-06-26 — CONNECT for Health Act of 2025: 2025 — CONNECT for Health Act of 2025 (HR4206, introduced): bipartisan reintroduction that would permanently expand Medicare telehealth coverage by eliminating geographic and originating-site restrictions and broadening eligible practitioners and services. (novelty: 3)
- 2025-09-02 — Telehealth Modernization Act: cross-connection with telehealth-modernization-act: HR5081 would amend Medicare telehealth coverage provisions tracked on the general Telehealth Coverage (Medicare) page. (novelty: 2)
- 2026-06-24 — To prohibit a REMS-certified provider from prescribing mifepristone without an in-person visit and a medical license in the State in which the patient resides, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with mifepristone-rems-prescribing-requirements: HR9421’s in-person visit requirement for mifepristone would carve mifepristone out of the broader telehealth prescribing framework. (novelty: 2)
- 2026-03-19 — Healthy Moms and Babies Act: cross-connection with healthy-moms-and-babies-act: Healthy Moms and Babies Act’s Medicaid maternal telehealth demonstration parallels ongoing Medicare telehealth coverage expansions, extending remote care policy into perinatal Medicaid populations. (novelty: 3)