Medicare Telehealth Flexibilities Extended through September 30, 2025

On March 14, 2025, as part of a spending bill to avert a federal government shutdown, Congress extended COVID-era telehealth “waivers” applicable to Medicare until September 30, 2025.  These were originally scheduled to end March 31, 2025.

This is welcome news for health care organizations who have relied on the flexibility offered by these waivers to extend access to telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries and other patients nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this represents another short-term extension by the government and poses questions on whether all or some of the telehealth flexibilities will be codified into law.

As a reminder, a set of key waivers to Medicare telehealth payment restrictions were enacted under the Social Security Act temporarily in connection with COVID-19 pandemic measures. These statutory waivers have now been extended by act of Congress multiple times, and this latest extension will have the following impacts related to telehealth:

• Telehealth at Home: Medicare patients will continue to be able to receive telehealth services in their homes and in any other location in the country through at least September 30, 2025. 
• In the absence of this extension, Medicare beneficiaries would have only been permitted to receive telehealth services in certain approved health care facilities in rural locations (outside of metropolitan statistical areas) as of April 1, 2025.
• Note that the Social Security Act does include a narrow exception that permits telehealth services in the home (or other locations) for patients in specific circumstances approved by law or regulation, including patients being treated for acute stroke symptoms, patients with a substance use disorder diagnosis, or patients with a mental health disorder (but see the additional in-person requirement for mental health telehealth treatment noted below), and patients on home dialysis for related clinical assessments.

This post was co-authored by Paul Palma, law intern at Robinson+Cole. Paul is not admitted to practice law.

To read the full post, click here. September 30, 2025