Permanent Medicare Telehealth Expansion Gains Lawmaker Support

Looser telehealth restrictions for Medicare beneficiaries enacted for the Covid-19 pandemic should be made permanent, the leaders of a key House health committee said.

The expansion of telehealth, where health-care providers treat patients using remote technology, over the past year has proven that many of Medicare’s tight restrictions on the service should end, Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), head of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s health panel, said Tuesday. Telehealth can address matters such as specialist shortages by connecting patients with doctors remotely, she said.

“It’s time to make Medicare reimbursement for telehealth permanent,” she said.

Eshoo lauded two bills from the ...