HEALTH Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Representative Thompson (PA)
Introduced
Summary
Makes Medicare telehealth expansions for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) permanent. It would add audio-only visits to the telehealth definition, require HHS to update rules within 60 days, convert emergency-period telehealth payments into ongoing Medicare payments, and remove geographic and originating-site limits while allowing facility fees only for certain originating-site types.
Show full summary
- Patients, including people in rural areas and those without video, would keep access to two-way audio or video telehealth for Medicare visits and face fewer location rules.
- Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics would be able to bill Medicare for distant-site telehealth as outpatient services and include telehealth costs when calculating payments under cost-based or prospective payment systems.
- Originating sites would no longer block access based on location, but facility fees would be paid only for originating sites that meet specific listed categories.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
1 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
More Medicare telehealth at community and rural clinics
If enacted, Medicare would let community health centers and rural health clinics act as distant telehealth providers without patient location limits. Audio-only phone visits would count as telehealth. Medicare would pay these clinics as outpatient visits, and their telehealth costs would count in clinic payment rates. Facility fees at the patient’s site would be paid only to certain site types named in Medicare law. The payment treatment would apply to telehealth furnished on or after the start of the emergency period in section 1135(g)(1)(B). HHS would need to update its rules within 60 days of enactment.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Thompson (PA)
PA • R
Cosponsors
Tokuda
HI • D
Sponsored 9/18/2025
Vindman
VA • D
Sponsored 10/21/2025
Stansbury
NM • D
Sponsored 12/18/2025
Pappas
NH • D
Sponsored 12/18/2025
Kaptur
OH • D
Sponsored 1/7/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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