In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump and Congress created a program that allowed people to receive medical care through the Internet in Medicare.
The policy was very popular. Near Half of the benefits of Medicare He received the services of views in 2020 to leave their distance from hospitals and offices of the doctor during the pandemic.
But the program should expire on September 30 without actions in the Congress, which would leave millions of elderly people suddenly unable to access the care for views, which would allow them to avoid long discs and crowded waiting halls. The program threatened – Congress I had to extend it In 2021, 2022, 2023 and in March 2025, but the defenders of the views say that they have little hope that the program will be saved on time for services to avoid failures.
“People are going to sleep tonight, when from the beginning of the pandemic was illuminated the lighting of views – and most of them used it one way or another,” said Kyle Zebel, Executive Director of ATA Action, the Bar of the American Association of Telemedicine, September 30. “They wake up in the morning without having this coating.”
Two of these people-Deng and Dorin are niches, who are 82 and 78, respectively, and who live in ELK-Grow, California. Dorin, who had an operation for breast cancer last year, says that she largely prefers to use television health care to check with her oncologist, and not at the wheel of 27 miles to a dead end. And Dan, who has pulmonary hypertension and inter -stroke lung disease, says that video visits help save him from difficult trips to the doctor, in which he needs to bring an oxygen tank and use a scooter. The journey has become even more difficult in the last weeks after Dorin pinched the nerve in her spine and now cannot raise the scooter Dan.
“If you have no visits to the video, I would never see a doctor, because it is so difficult for me to leave home,” he says. Next week, he has a video planned with a primary medical care doctor.
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Another program called “acute hospital care”, which allows the revolution of patients to dump and receive controlled help at home, should also expire on September 30 without actions in the congress. Medicare & medicaid services said that all patients must be discharged Or returned to the hospital on September 30.
Before Pandemia, Medicare patients were extremely difficult to claim to care for the views. They had to live in rural areas, classified in a certain way, and they had to receive their services in a particular type of place – often a medical office. Congress accepted the rejection of these rules at the beginning of the pandemic, which are often called the flexibility of Medicare Telegealth.
The use of views through Medicare has decreased since 2020, to about 25% of patients in 2024, according to Medicare & medicaid services centersThe field but is still a rescue circle for certain patients, including those who are facilitated by immunity, or who live at a great distance from the office of their doctors, says Mei Kwong, the executive director of the Center for Sliced Health, a non -commercial organization that provides technical assistance to people with questions about viewing policy.
What is happening now?
Most of the services of the mental health channel within the framework of Medicare will continue after September 30 A separate bill Passed in 2021. But for other types of appointments, which will happen next, is unclear.
According to Kwong, some suppliers may continue to offer viewers to Medicare patients after September 30. In the past, the flexibility of views was extended so many times that many suppliers may assume that they will be extended again, ultimately – possibly with retroactive payment for services provided to Congress. However, smaller suppliers may not have financial flexibility. They may try to transfer patients with views for several weeks or months, when they hope that the congress will act.
Dr. James Marcin, Director of the Center for Health and Technology at the University of California, Davis, who manages the system of views of the system, calls for the administrators to continue the business, as usual, and continues to provide visits in the field of television care for Medicare patients, although the compensation ends. According to him, it would be “catastrophic” so that many patients were transferred or had to personally come to the doctor’s office and agree on trips, care for children and travel. According to him, in UC Davis Health there are 2500 patients covered by Medicare, planned for visits to views in October.
According to him, visits to the views were extremely useful for patients who live for many hours, and otherwise it would have to come to something fast, for example, to test drugs after surgery or register a chronic state such as arthritis. “We are thoughtful about these visits,” says Marcin. “If you need to enter and see someone or have laboratories, you can, but we do not want to force people to enter when it is not necessary.”
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Some suppliers, including the Mass General Brigham Medical Group, have expanded their capabilities of views in recent years, since patients have adopted this option. In 2021, Mass Brigham General launched virtual emergency care service, which allows doctors to see patients in Massachusetts and New Gampshire through Telehealth 365 days a year from 7:00 to 23:00, says Lindsay Heiner, President and Chief Operational Director of Mass General Brigham Medical Group. This allowed doctors to help patients resolve complaints or be quickly noticed and bypass expensive visits to emergency assistance.
According to Geiner, doctors can also see patients almost to combat the treatment of chronic diseases. Despite the fact that practice receives compensation at a slightly lower rate for views, virtual visits will save money in general, because doctors do not need office infrastructure and staff that they may need if they see someone personally. Like UC-Davis, Mass General Brigham plans to continue to offer Telehealth Medicare patients in the hope that Congress is quickly solving this problem.
The need to solve a viewship
Even if the Congress ultimately expands the flexibility of views, there is a need for a long -term solution that makes television health care with a more constant Medicare, says Sarah Homan, the Director of State Association of Rural Health Clinics. Firstly, stress suppliers in order to continue to approach the cliffs, after which they will not be compensated for the provision of television services to patients Medicare. On the other, In accordance with the current lawRural healthcare clinics can put up a very low amount for visits to views: $ 94.45, regardless of what to visit.
According to Hokhman, this has forced the healthcare clinics in rural areas without adequate compensation since 2020. “If the object becomes much smaller thanks to views, it is much more difficult for them to invest in the fact that there are often very expensive technologies,” she says.
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Defenders of views are worried that if the flexibility period expires, private insurers may follow the example and stop offering coverage of the services of views. “How Medicare goes, also a nation,” says the zebals from ATA.
For many lawyers, the inability of Congress to extend the flexibility of Medicare Telehealth indicates a big problem of how Congress began to work in recent years. Both the flexibility of views, and acute care of the hospital, “housekeeping care”, “should have been permanent in the normal world of the Columbia district, which is as it should,” Zebble says.
But Congress is more inclined to create individual legislative acts, and instead continues to pass “extensions”, he says that he essentially drinks the bank in the future. (Increased premium tax benefits In the near future Because the extension cord is expired.)
Of course, even if the Congress acted, he might not give a defender that protects the respite that they wanted. The proposed democratic and republican plans – none of which passed – according to him, would extend the flexibility of views for several months – until October or November.
