If you watch the news and the government shut down hullabaloo, the telehealth flexibilities are/were maintained in that bill. As it stands right now, on this morning of 12/20/24, Congress has struck down two bills that would have extended telehealth flexibilities, so we are back to square one with what the final rule states which is telehealth is over unless you are in a shortage area or for Beh Health services. The first bill extended the current rules for two years, the second bill only extended for 90 days, but again, both are stuck down at this moment.
*IF* they can come to an agreement on the telehealth, then yes, we can bill office visits for the telehealth visits with the modifiers. However, CPT created new telehealth codes but CMS will not be paying for them, we are to use the OV codes + mod. Med Advantage plans are to follow CMS rules but commercial plans do not. In my organization, we have the new codes set up and ready to go, if approved, so that Medicare, and those insurances we know follow MC, will be billed with OV+mod, all other insurances will be billed with the new telehealth codes. The audio-only codes 99441-99443 have been deleted no matter what happens with telehealth.