The AMA has long called for Congress to enact legislation that would: (1) permanently allow Medicare patients in every geographic area, not just patients in rural areas, to receive telehealth services by waiving the geographic restrictions in current law; and (2) permanently allow Medicare patients to receive telehealth services in their homes instead of having to go to a medical facility to receive telehealth from a distant site. To date, however, Congress has passed legislation that only temporarily waives these requirements. Most recently, in March 2025 Congress extended these telehealth flexibilities for a six-month period that ends Sept. 30, 2025.

Physicians who provide telehealth services to Medicare patients should be aware that if Congress is not able to pass legislation before Oct. 1, 2025, that extends government funding, then the current Medicare telehealth flexibilities will lapse. This means that telehealth services would be limited to rural areas as they were before the COVID public health emergency and that patients would not be able to receive telehealth services in their homes. In addition, the ability to provide audio-only services to Medicare patients would lapse, as would the Acute Hospital Care at Home program.

In past government shutdowns, whenever Congress passed legislation to reopen the government, it made the funding and policies retroactive to the effective date of the shutdown. Physician practices may want to consider adjusting their patient schedules for telehealth services, however, as neither the likelihood nor the duration of a shutdown are known.