Is your Practice Ready for the End of Telehealth Flexibilities

Is  your Practice Ready for the End of Telehealth Flexibilities

Tomorrow Medicare telehealth flexibilities are set to expire and the House is out of session, making a government shutdown more likely.   Groups such as AANP have urged lawmakers to continue to fund telehealth flexibilities to ensure patients get critically needed healthcare.  A number of advocates are asking lawmakers to include a retroactive fix in any eventual funding bill to guarantee reimbursement for telehealth services provided during any lapse.  Telehealth is supported as a bipartisan measure but

Without an extension passed today providers would immediately lose reimbursement for many Medicare telehealth visits, particularly those delivered to patients in their homes. Pre-pandemic restrictions go back in place, limiting coverage to rural areas and designated facilities. Critical initiatives such as Acute Hospital Care at Home could face significant disruption. Specifically, if Congress fails to enact either a  Continuing Resolution (CR) (or another piece of legislation) by midnight tonight, most pandemic-era Medicare telehealth flexibilities will expire on that date, including:

• Home as an originating site and geographic waivers.
• Expanded Medicare clinician eligibility.
• FQHC/RHC as distant-site telehealth providers for Medicare patients.
• Audio-only allowances (relevant for non-behavioral telehealth).
• Hospital-at-Home waiver authority.
• Many Medicare telehealth visits would revert to pre-COVID rules, limiting coverage for urban and home-based care and narrowing the types of clinicians who can bill for services.

So, first, please contact your  congressional members to urge them to extend virtual care flexibilities including include retrospective payment if the flexibilities are restored. 

Next, make sure you have a plan in place so all in your organization know what happens with your Telehealth patients who are on Medicare tomorrow (October 1) if there is no continuing resolution that includes telehealth flexibilities. 

Finally, support your professional organization(s) like DCNP which are reaching out regularly to those who set policy and help NPs provide the best care of their patients.  If you have not yet purchased your seat for DCNP's Fall CE Conference please sign up.  In addition to learning from a wide variety of top clinicians, we are excited to hear from NC State Senator, Gale Adcock , Nurse Practitioner and former health officer of a multinational company analytics and AI company,  who has been in publicly elected office since 2007 to help understand how to make our voice heard. 

Thank you for your membership in DCNP.  Please encourage your NP colleagues to join us - more members = stronger voice.