Shutdown deal extends Medicare telehealth coverage
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The Senate deal to reopen the government would extend Medicare telehealth coverage through Jan. 30 and pay retroactively for virtual care services delivered during the government shutdown.
Why it matters: If passed by Congress, the government funding deal would provide relief for seniors and providers who've come to rely on Medicare paying for virtual visits since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Where it stands: Medicare's authority to pay for virtual care outside of rural health settings expired when the shutdown began on Oct. 1, prompting providers to cancel appointments or face the prospect of not getting paid.
- Medicare telehealth coverage has broad bipartisan support — but it hasn't yet been made permanent, in part because doing so could cost billions of dollars.
Zoom out: The Senate deal would also extend other health policies that expired last month, including a program that allows hospitals to deliver institutional-level care in Medicare patients' homes.
- The bill also continues extra Medicare payments for hospitals with low patient volumes and disproportionate numbers of senior patients, as well as funding for community health centers, teaching health centers and the National Health Service Corps.
- It also delays scheduled Medicare payment cuts, including for laboratory tests, and a major cut to hospitals' Medicaid payments.
- The policies are all retroactively extended from Oct. 1 through Jan. 30.
The bottom line: "Since these extenders are included in this short-term [continuing resolution], there may be an expectation that they will continue to be included in subsequent, longer-term funding bills that fund the government through the end of the fiscal year," Jeff Davis, director at consulting firm McDermott+, wrote in an email to Axios.
