Doctors cancel telehealth appointments as Medicare coverage lapses

Health care providers across the country are canceling telehealth visits with Medicare beneficiaries or warning patients they will have to pay out of pocket for appointments because Congress let coverage lapse.

When government funding expired Sept. 30, so did several health care policies mostly involving payments, and among them are provisions that allowed Medicare to cover telehealth services for millions of people who are 65 and older or have disabilities.

Congress typically extends this telehealth coverage before it expires, but the provision became a casualty in the broader impasse on funding the government.

“It’s already leading to widespread disruptions and it’s something that need not have happened,” said Kyle Zebley, executive director of American Telemedicine Association Action