US Congress on December 20, 2024 passed a last-minute temporary government funding bill that keeps the government open for three months. As part of this package, a number of existing telehealth flexibilities were also extended to March 31, 2025. This includes the flexibility permitting the use of audio/video telehealth technologies to conduct hospice face-to-face visits, which many hospices and their physicians and nurse practitioners have come to rely upon since Medicare allowed that flexibility during the COVID public health emergency.
While the original funding bill had proposed a two-year extension to this flexibility, the temporary compromise package affords only a 90-day extension. We anticipate that this and other digital health issues will be subject to ongoing debate in the new Congress.
Of course, it is possible that the government will not reach a long-term resolution in the first quarter of 2025, potentially resulting in a government shutdown or an additional short-term extension of the telehealth flexibilities. In the event that no additional legislation extending telehealth flexibilities is passed by March 31, 2025, hospices should have contingency plans to complete all recertification face-to-face visits in person.
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