Medicare telehealth coverage ends soon

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels

By Donna LeValley
Posted on March 19, 2025

Prior to the Covid pandemic, Medicare covered telehealth (virtual doctor visits over the Internet) only for those in rural areas (with certain exceptions). Even then, patients were required to travel to an approved “originating site,” such as a clinic or doctor’s office in order to receive telehealth services.

To address the need to keep an eye on patients during Covid and all the related shutdowns, Medicare expanded its telehealth coverage to include patients’ homes as a permissible “originating site.”

While use of telehealth services has declined since those days, it remains nearly two times higher than pre-pandemic levels, with 12.7% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries receiving a telehealth service in the last three months of 2023.

Under current law, Medicare’s coverage of non-rural home-based telehealth will end at the end of this month: March 31, 2025. It was originally set to end on December 31, 2024, but was extended for three months by the American Relief Act (H.R. 10545), passed to fund the government and avoid a shutdown.

So, whether you are worried about picking up a cold in your doctor’s waiting room or don’t want to drive in nasty or cold weather, you can still use the telehealth option to take care of many of your health needs — until the end of March.

Beginning April 1, you must be in an office or medical facility located in a rural area (in the U.S.) for most telehealth services. However, if you aren’t in a rural healthcare setting, there are a limited number of telehealth services you will remain eligible to get. [See below.]

Telehealth coverage

Until the end of this month, Medicare Part B (medical insurance) covers certain telehealth services, and you’ll pay the same amount for those that you would pay if you received the services in person.

You’re responsible to pay 20% of the Medicare-approved amount for your doctor or other healthcare provider/practitioner’s services, and the Part B deductible applies.

Medicare currently offers telehealth coverage for preventive health screenings, office visits and psychotherapy. The menu of covered services was expanded in 2020 to include physical and occupational therapy, emergency department virtual visits and nursing facility care.

Of course, with telehealth, you can’t receive care that includes procedures that require a physical examination, taking blood or urine samples, performing x-rays or giving injections.

Here are ways telehealth can be used to take care of your health:

Behavioral health services. Services offered include mental health screenings, addiction counseling, to monitor and manage symptoms of anxiety and depression, and dispensing medication.
Test results. Checking results from lab tests or X-rays
Follow-up care. Checking in with your provider after surgery and managing your medicines
Non-emergency urgent care. Getting help for common ailments such as colds or an upset stomach, and checking on common problems like headaches or infections
Therapeutic treatments. Physical or occupational therapy sessions
Remote monitoring. You can use technology to track and share health data with your health provider. This is called remote patient monitoring or RPM. Some RPM tools track blood sugar levels, heart rates, blood pressure and weight.

Some services will continue

Telehealth services that will continue for all Medicare patients even after March 31 include:

Monthly End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) visits for home dialysis
Services for diagnosis, evaluation or treatment of symptoms of an acute stroke wherever you are, including in a mobile stroke unit
Behavioral health services, also called mental health services, for the diagnosis, evaluation or treatment of a mental health disorder, including in your home
Services to treat a substance use disorder or a co-occurring mental health disorder including in your home
Diabetes self-management training
Medical nutrition therapy

What can you do to keep telehealth?

Medicare Advantage (MA) plans are required to cover all Part A and Part B benefits covered under traditional Medicare, and have some flexibility to offer additional telehealth benefits, similar to their coverage of eye exams and dental check-ups.

MA plans may continue to offer the expanded services after March 31 regardless of the status of the temporary telehealth expansions in traditional Medicare. Check with area Medicare Advantage providers to learn what they plan to cover.

A workaround for those enrolled in traditional Medicare is using a provider that participates in an Accountable Care Organization (ACO).

An ACO is a group of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers who work together to coordinate your healthcare. They are permitted to waive these requirements and may continue to provide telehealth services without geographic restrictions, even after the current flexibilities expire for Medicare generally.

Congress could vote to continue Medicare coverage of telehealth, but the legislation proposed (including the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024) doesn’t include a repeal and only offers a temporary extension of the waiver of the requirements.

[Call or write your Congressional representatives to express your views.]