Congress Passes Short Term Funding Package with 3 Month Telehealth Extension

Sarah Hohman, Director of Government Affairs, NARHC

After a very tumultuous week here in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Congress passed a short-term Continuing Resolution (CR), funding the federal government until March 14 and narrowly preventing a shutdown.

Included in that bill was a 3-month extension of the following Medicare telehealth flexibilities:

• RHCs can continue to serve as a telehealth distant site, billing G2025 until March 31, 2025
• The occasional in-person visit for mental health telehealth visits is waived until March 31, 2025
• Medicare geographic and originating site flexibilities will also continue until March 31, 2025 (allowing patients to receive telehealth services from their home, etc.)

This is a very different package from the one we first shared with you earlier this week, giving us a glimpse into how challenging the legislative environment will be as we enter the 119th Congress.

The final bill to leave the station this Congress began as a 1,500 page bill with our telehealth fix for two years, important reforms of Pharmacy Benefit Managers, and more after significant bipartisan negotiations and ended as a ~116 page bill with straight 3-month extensions of many policies with no PBM reforms, prior authorization language, etc. The final bill is also letting a 2.8% reduction to Medicare Physician Fee Schedule payments take effect in January, this will impact our care management reimbursement.

Unfortunately, this legislation does not provide the long-term continuity or the important health policy reforms that providers and patients deserve, and believe me, I agree with many of your frustrations!

However, I want to celebrate the over 1,100 messages that your Members of Congress received from you, members of the RHC community, highlighting the importance of telehealth this week alone. Thank you for your continued participation in NARHC's advocacy efforts -- it's critically important that we continue that momentum for the next rapidly approaching deadline of March 31.