This bill would change parts of the Social Security Act so certain cardiopulmonary rehabilitation services can be provided and paid for when delivered in a patient's home using two-way audio-visual telehealth. It updates Medicare telehealth payment rules to include hospitals as possible distant sites and removes some geographic limits for cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation telehealth visits. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must write rules to allow a patients home to be designated as a provider-based location of a hospital for these services and to include cardiac and pulmonary rehab programs among specified telehealth services. The new standards take effect when HHS issues them.
No publicly available information on the bills overall budgetary effects or cost estimates is included in the text. The bill requires HHS rulemaking but does not include an official cost estimate in the provided material.
The bill would permanently extend flexibilities first put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic so that cardiac rehabilitation, intensive cardiac rehabilitation, and pulmonary rehabilitation can be delivered in the home via telehealth. Supporters want HHS to set clear standards so homes can be treated as provider-based locations for hospital outpatient services and so these rehab programs are explicitly included among telehealth services eligible under Medicare payment rules.
No publicly available information on opponents' views or formal objections is included in the provided material.