PAN joins 350 stakeholder letter urging Congress to extend Medicare telehealth services
The PAN Foundation joined a letter alongside 350 healthcare organizations, medical associations, and patient advocacy groups urging Congress to act swiftly to prevent the expiration of Medicare telehealth services in September (2025), approving a minimum two-year extension if not making telehealth access permanent.
Telehealth is a continuation of standing, bipartisan policy over the last five years and will not lead to new costs. Access to telehealth services serves as a lifeline to Medicare beneficiaries across the country, allowing patients to access critical healthcare services even when they have barriers to accessing in-person care, such as weakened immune systems, neurodegenerative disorders, and other chronic conditions that make travel and in-person visits burdensome. Patients and practitioners alike seek assurance that telehealth access will continue.
Ensuring stability for telehealth policy will:
- Provide certainty for Medicare beneficiaries and the program who will otherwise have to plan for the loss of access to clinicians and services they use virtually
- Strengthen our national healthcare workforce by allowing for investment in flexible virtual staffing models that address current workforce shortages
- Encourage ongoing investment in technology tools to offer telehealth services