Telehealth is part of Congress’ spending plan, but more is needed, ATA says

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Congress voted to keep telehealth options online for Americans through the end of September, according to the American Telemedicine Association (ATA).

ATA celebrated telehealth provisions in Congress’ continuing resolution to fund federal government operations through the end of September. ATA announced the legislation extends telehealth flexibilities granted to Medicare to allow virtual visits to occur from a wider range of locations, including beneficiaries’ homes.

The law will grant virtual care options to more qualified providers, while the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program was extended, allowing Medicare-certified hospitals to furnish inpatient-level care at beneficiaries’ homes, according to ATA.

The congressional action was “a big victory for telehealth, and a huge relief for patients and clinicians in every state and region of the United States, especially those in underserved communities,” said Kyle Zebley, executive director of ATA Action, the ATA’s advocacy arm.

Kyle Zebley
_{© American Telemedicine Association}

The provisions will serve physicians, other clinicians and patients, but are time limited. Since the end of the public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates have called for some allowances remain in effect permanently. Zebley noted the deadline in the most recent continuing resolution.

“By including these provisions in this stopgap legislation, Congress sent a very clear message that telehealth is a fundamental part of care delivery, and that we must not reverse the significant progress made in modernizing our health care system,” Zebley said in an ATA statement. “At the same time, the shortened duration of the extensions included are an impediment to long-term certainty, and the exclusion of other essential telehealth programs that expired or were absent from the final bill continues to prevent millions of individuals from accessing needed care. We must fix this, for the sake of patients, clinicians and our ailing health care system.”

ATA has called for renewed permission for a number of programs that as of now remain expired:

• First-dollar coverage for High Deductible Health Plan-Health Savings Accounts
• Telehealth as an excepted benefit
• Telehealth components in an expanded Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program
• Expanded and in-home cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services

“ATA Action will double down on our efforts to stop this telehealth rollercoaster and restore certainty and confidence for patients and clinicians, to know that our health care system will not let them down when they need it most,” Zebley said in the statement. “We remain grateful to Congress and the Trump administration for their declarations of support for telehealth and will continue to push for permanency and reestablishment of all telehealth provisions.”