Medicare Coverage Change for Telehealth

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), instituted temporary changes to Medicare’s coverage for telehealth services during the recent pandemic. The time limit on coverage for the pandemic-related services will end soon. Restrictions on the geographic location and site of the service will resume on January 1, 2025, returning to pre-pandemic limits . Consequently, most telehealth services will only be covered by Medicare for patients living in rural areas and certain medical settings. If you have been using telehealth services, it is important that you clarify with your healthcare provider whether or not your services are still approved by Medicare as a telehealth service. Simply because a service is a Medicare covered service, does not mean that it is automatically covered by Medicare when it is delivered as a telehealth service. It is very important that you verify that the service you are receiving is still covered as a telehealth service.

There are some exceptions to the telehealth rules that go into effect on January 1, 2025. Coverage for care-giver training, cardio-vascular and pulmonary rehabilitation, psychological testing, developmental testing and audiology/speech language testing will continue to be covered on a provisional basis, as telehealth services. Determination about making coverage for these categories permanent will be made following an analysis of all provisional codes at some point in the future.

CMS did not finalize proposals to include coverage for continuous glucose monitoring to the Medicare-covered telehealth list of approved services.

If you have questions about telehealth coverage under Medicare, call CHOICES 800 994 9422.