Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) Thursday called on federal lawmakers to reauthorize Medicare coverage for telehealth services, which is set to expire at the end of September.
“We are still working on reauthorizing it, but it needs to be permanent and done,” Murphy said during The Hill’s event “Smarter Benefits: Redefining the Employer Role,” sponsored by Takeda.
President Trump signed a bill in March funding the federal government until Sept. 30, which included a provision extending expanded Medicare coverage for telehealth appointments until then.
The future of Medicare coverage for telehealth services remains up in the air as Congress hurtles toward the government funding deadline.
The White House is urging lawmakers to pass a four-month stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown, but there is no mention of telehealth services in its “anomalies” list, a 21-page document on the programs the Trump administration wants Congress to continue funding at different levels until Jan. 31.
The Hill reached out to the White House and the Office of Management and Budget for comment on its stance on reauthorizing Medicare coverage for telehealth services.
There is bipartisan support for making Medicare coverage for telehealth services permanent, and Reps. Earl Carter (R-Ga) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich) introduced a bill early this month to extend telehealth funding for Medicare patients through fiscal year 2027.
Murphy, a surgeon who still occasionally sees patients in North Carolina, called increased telehealth services one of the “huge wins” to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, explaining that virtual appointments save his patients time and money.
“My patients come from two hours north, two hours south, and if you look out at the coast, five hours or half a day one-way travel for a 15-minute office visit,” Murphy told The Hill’s Julia Manchester.
“If I’m reviewing a lab test or if I’m reviewing a CAT scan or something, we can do that online.”
Opponents of making telehealth flexibilities permanent have raised concerns about the impact of telehealth services on the quality of patient care, cost, and potential for fraud and overuse, according to the healthcare policy nonprofit KFF.
