ATA Action Urges 119th Congress to Extend Telehealth Services

WASHINGTON—The American Telemedicine Association’s (ATA) affiliated trade association, ATA Action, has urged Congress to make extend or make permanent the telehealth flexibilities that are set to expire on Mar. 31. ATA Action said urgent action is needed by Congress to prevent millions of patients from losing access to essential virtual care services. 

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jefferies, ATA Action outlined its telehealth priorities for the 119th Congress. The letter stated that failure to include vital measures in last year’s funding bill has created a precarious gap that must be addressed in order to safeguard access to care and ensure stability across the health care system.

“To ensure patients do not lose access to vital health care services and to provide stability for clinicians and health care systems that have integrated telehealth into their operations, it is imperative that these essential provisions, now in place for half a decade, continue to expand critically needed care to patients,” said Kyle Zebley, senior VP of public policy for ATA and executive director of ATA Action. “We are grateful for the unprecedented bipartisan, bicameral support for telehealth, across presidential administrations of both parties, and applaud our telehealth policy champions in Congress for their consistent support.”

As new Congress members settle in and begin to contemplate how to address long-term telehealth policies, ATA Action has called on both parties in the House and Senate, aiming to ensure access is maintained to virtual care services, including removing geographic and originating site restrictions, adding therapists to the Medicare practitioners, waiving in-person requirements for tele-mental health services, allowing federally-qualified health centers and rural health clinics to continue offering telehealth services, continuing the acute hospital care at home program and extending telehealth services prior to recertification of hospice care eligibility.

In addition, the ATA Action letter asked that Congress strongly consider reinstating the following telehealth policies that were left out of the final package passed at the end of the 118th Congress and expired on Dec. 31, 2024:

• First dollar coverage of telehealth in high deductible health plans 
• In-home cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services flexibility
• Expansion of the Medicare diabetes prevention program model
• Removal of in-person requirements for remote prescribing of controlled substances

“We remain confident that incoming President Donald Trump, who championed and put in place these critical provisions five years ago, working alongside the new Congress, has a unique opportunity to deliver a fresh set of wins for the telehealth community and health care at large by making these provisions permanent,” Zebley said. “Telehealth remains a popular and bipartisan issue that we just can’t allow to lapse. We look forward to working with Congress and the incoming administration to maintain access to virtual care services, serving as a resource for all matters related to telehealth and virtual care as we move forward in the 119th Congress.”