With telehealth extensions granted under the American Relief Act, TMA has updated its telehealth waiver chart to reflect these temporary changes that, among others, waive geographic site restrictions for mental health telemedicine services provided without an in-person patient visit through March.
The waivers, originally instituted during the COVID-19 public health emergency and previously extended by Congress through the end of 2024, were set to expire Jan. 1.
The act, signed into law Dec. 21, 2024, also extends physician payment for audio-only telehealth services and established payment for telehealth services provided by federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics.
Houston neurologist Kimberly Monday, MD, says she regularly sees telemedicine increase access to care for patients with behavioral health needs who are unable not make in-person visits due to the severity of their conditions, or for reasons like distance, lack of appointment availability, or cost.
“Telemedicine is an important tool in preventing medical lapses for patients,” the TMA Board of Trustees member said. “It would not be beneficial for the physician-patient relationship to remove these [flexibilities], especially for non-surgical specialties who have patients who may not geographically be able to access care for follow ups.”
TMA continues to advocate for the permanent removal of geographic site restrictions so Medicare patients can have virtual visits from the comfort of their own home. Likewise, TMA continues to meet with public and private payers to ensure meaningful telehealth payment and policy remain available for Texas patients and the physicians that care for them.
The continuation of Medicare telehealth flexibilities follows another recent telemedicine extension by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that allows physicians to virtually prescribe certain controlled medications via telehealth through Dec. 31.
These flexibilities apply to schedule II through V controlled substances, including those approved by the Food and Drug Administration for maintenance and withdrawal management treatment of opioid use disorder – via audio-video telemedicine visits without having conducted an in-person medical evaluation of the patient.
DEA stated in a Nov. 15, 2024, announcement that it and HHS will “continue to carefully consider the input received and are working to promulgate a final set of telemedicine regulations.”
“The future of medicine is telehealth,” Dr. Monday said. “It has brought us into this century. Post-COVID-19, we’ve come to understand how important it is to improving access to care.”
Along with the updated waiver chart, find additional telemedicine resources on TMA’s dedicated webpage.
Alisa Pierce
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1469