In the final legislative push of 2024, Congress extended Medicare’s telehealth flexibilities during the lame-duck session until March 31, providing a temporary reprieve for millions of patients and providers, including rheumatologists, who have come to rely on virtual care. This averted an immediate crisis but failed to address the long-term uncertainty around access to telehealth, including whether parity is here to stay. Temporary solutions undermine the full potential of telehealth, leaving providers in limbo and patients at risk of losing critical access to care. The ACR supports permanent policy reform that sets reimbursement levels and parameters around use that allow providers to embrace telehealth’s full clinical potential.
Currently, uncertainty is gripping the system. If you see a patient today and want to see them back in a month, is telehealth an option? We do not know if Medicare will reimburse for a telehealth visit in April. Although members of Congress seemingly agree on maintaining access to telehealth, they are less united on whether those visits should share full parity with in-office visits.
Crucially for the broader legislation, lawmakers also are not coming together around the other major factors of the appropriations package, which must be agreed upon by midnight on March 14. These items include the length of time the funding package should cover, the total amount of funding for military and non-defense programs, and other policy specifics. If Congress fails to make a deal before this deadline, there will be a two-week buffer before a change in access to telehealth visits, since the current telehealth flexibilities will remain in place through March 31.
The last two funding packages, in the previous Congress, saw the Republican majority fail to gather enough votes to pass a package without Democrat support. On March 11, the House passed a continuing resolution with only one Democrat vote. That legislation extends telehealth through September. Now the Senate will consider this legislation.
Senate Republicans will need to convince at least 8 Democrats to vote with them to pass this package and avert a government shutdown. The ACR is advocating for an extension of the current telehealth flexibilities. We are also preparing materials and information for our members to prepare for the impacts if a telehealth extension does not pass. Contact your lawmakers today about preserving access to telehealth.
