A House subcommittee took the next steps Thursday to extend telehealth flexibilities and expanded remote patient monitoring rules due to expire at the end of the year.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health voted overwhelmingly to send to the full committee the Telehealth Enhancement for Mental Health Act of 2024, the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024 and the Expanding Remote Monitoring Access Act of 2024.
Related: House committee advances bill to extend telehealth rules
The telehealth legislation would extend through 2026 authorities that were originally granted during the pandemic, such as Medicare waivers allowing providers to treat patients remotely. It largely mirrors a similar extension passed earlier this month by the House Ways and Means Committee.
One difference is the Energy and Commerce bill also includes payment parity for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics, so they can bill the government the same amount for telehealth and in-person outpatient services. Under the Ways and Means bill, such organizations would be reimbursed at lower rates for most virtual services.
“While continuing these flexibilities for seniors will require an investment by Congress, it is crucial that we continue to allow seniors to access health care via telehealth if they choose,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).
The Energy and Commerce bill was originally written to make telehealth flexibilities permanent, but it was amended in Thursday's markup to match the two-year extension of the Ways and Means bill, which is likely to improve the extension's chances for passage by the full House.
While lawmakers did not mention the potential cost of increased telehealth services, a two-year bill would likely be easier to pay for under congressional budget rules than a permanent extension.
The Congressional Budget Office has not yet estimated the costs of the bills.
One provision in the Telehealth Modernization Act to help pay for the possible costs targets pharmacy benefit managers that operate in the Medicare Part D program. The provision would bar PBMs from keeping portions of the lower prices they negotiate for drugs and require them to charge a fixed service fee.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), said that the delinking measure would save hundreds of millions of dollars.
The remote monitoring legislation, which could be a significant boost for some sectors of the healthcare industry, also lasts for two years. It would continue allowing Medicare payment for remote monitoring of patients who need the services two days a month, instead of 16 days under previous rules.
The bills still need to pass the full committee and the House. Senators in the upper chamber have signaled support for the measures, but they also need to pass companion versions.
A witness in a Senate Finance Committee hearing on rural health Thursday said such extensions were vital.
"Anything we can do to extend the waivers and flexibilities around telehealth would be a godsend," said Jeremy Davis, president and CEO of Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, Oregon.
