In This Article
- Why Were Telehealth Flexibilities Introduced?
- Congress Extends Medicare Telehealth but Ends Key Cost-Saving Provision
- Key Medicare Telehealth Extensions Under the American Relief Act 2025
As part of the American Relief Act (ARA) of 2025, Congress extended medical healthcare access from March 31, 2025, but for a very short period. Telehealth is a big facility provided by the US government, and its extension is helpful in relieving senior citizens facing health issues.
Not all the rules made during the pandemic are extended, and the ones that are extended are for a short period only, and the senior citizens can temporarily get the benefit. People are expecting Congress to come up with permanent and better plans in the future.
Why Were Telehealth Flexibilities Introduced?
The telehealth got the population and emerged as the basic need during the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary federal waiver enabled the people to remotely get the medical healthcare facilities. Before the introduction of these flexibilities, people had geographical restrictions and were neccessarily required to visit in person.
Congress Extends Medicare Telehealth but Ends Key Cost-Saving Provision
While Congress has extended Medicare telehealth access but has not decided to extend or renew a provision called “Safe Harbor.” Through this, the citizens were allowed to cover high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) through telehealth before meeting the deductibles. As a result, the Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are not affected.
The latest changes in the telehealth program do not cover such expenses; therefore, the patients have to pay full price until they reach their deductibles. According to people’s reviews, this change is discouraging telehealth use, especially for the people relying on HSA. At that time, millions of American people were able to get the required medical care and facilities without unnecessary hurdles.
Since that time, Congress has extended these facilities multiple times and has been supporting the patients and providers. The looming of the previous extension is resulting in the concerns of the stakeholders to lose the people’s confidence, and some are saying it may reverse the digital healthcare progress or the patient may feel difficulty in getting the virtual medical healthcare assistance.
Telehealth is an innovative way to get the latest health facilities and has provided awareness about the use of technology in health and medical science. Weborik Hub provides the services for the latest tech solution integration in websites and apps and is helping the global clients to achieve their goals promptly using our services.
Key Medicare Telehealth Extensions Under the American Relief Act 2025
The extension of the American Relief Act (ARA) of 2025 has made multiple changes, as we have been discussing so far, but some other flexibilities are mentioned here:
The geographical restrictions to get the medical facilities in rural and other areas were ended.
More healthcare professionals offered the medical coverage for the telehealth services. The occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists are able to remotely provide services like speech therapy, on-call treatment, and virtual rehabilitation.
The current extension in the telehealth still presents the facility to phone-based (audio-only), which is a big relief for the senior citizens with no internet access or the video call facility.
In addition to these, Telehealth for Hospice Certification, Mental Health Individual Requirement Delayed, and Telehealth for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) are the key features of this program.
