Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

President Biden signed H.R. 2471, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (“2022 CAA”) into law on Tuesday, March 15, 2022. The new law extends the Medicare telehealth waivers and flexibilities for an additional 151 days after the end of the PHE.

The extension allows the following telehealth flexibilities to continue:

• Pause on location restrictions: Medicare beneficiaries may continue to receive telehealth services from anywhere in the country. Beneficiaries are not limited to qualifying ZIP codes or locations, such as facilities or physician offices.
• Mental health services: The law continues to waive the in-person requirements for specific mental health services.
• Eligible providers: Qualified audiologists, speech-language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists, and physical therapists may continue to provide telehealth services and receive reimbursement for them.
• Audio-only telehealth services: Under the new law, Medicare will continue to provide coverage and reimbursement for most audio-only telehealth services. These services consist of office visits, office psychiatry services, and professional consultations. Coverage and reimbursement also apply to other services that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Secretary added to the telehealth list for which CMS has not expressly required the use of real-time, interactive audio-visual equipment during the PHE.

Rural area funding: The 2022 CAA also provides $62,500,000 from the federal budget for grants to use for telemedicine and distance learning services in rural areas. The money helps finance facility and systems construction in qualified rural areas to ensure providers can offer telemedicine and distance learning services in those geographic areas.