Congress only has until the end of September to renew expanded Medicare telehealth services. Before the COVID pandemic, only certain patients with specific diagnoses and conditions were eligible to receive telehealth medical care. But lawmakers made telehealth available to all beneficiaries during the pandemic and broadened the types of practitioners who can provide those services.
If expanded telehealth services are not extended, they will become much less accessible for Medicare beneficiaries, especially those who are homebound or living in rural areas. Beneficiaries would lose at-home and audio-only telehealth options, and non-physician practitioners like occupational therapists will no longer be able to provide telehealth care.
A recent survey shows that the majority of providers are not ready for such a massive scaling back of services, with 71 percent saying they are only “somewhat” prepared or not prepared at all. More than 60 percent of providers are also concerned that vulnerable patients will lose telehealth access altogether.
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