Update to article below:

Telehealth Flexibilities Extended until March 31^st

Recent legislation extended the waiver of the geographic, site of service, and practitioner type restrictions.  Medicare patients in non-rural areas and in their homes can continue to get telehealth services from this extended range of practitioners until March 31, 2025.

Source: mlnconnects news,011625

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As of 1/1/25, audio only telehealth codes 99441, 99442 and 99443 have been deleted. There are new telehealth codes, 98000-98016, for both audio-visual and audio only telehealth visits.

Medicare will not be recognizing these new codes, and they will have a status indicator of I (inactive). For the foreseeable future, Medicare will continue to use the Office/Outpatient E/M codes for audio-visual telehealth visits.

On December 20^th, Congress enacted a short-term spending package that included 3-month extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities, through the end of March 2025.

Unless Congress acts by 3/31/2025, effective April 1^st, traditional Medicare coverage of audio-visual telehealth services, will be limited to the following:

• Monthly End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) visits for home dialysis.
• Diabetes self-management training.
• Medical nutrition therapy.
• Services to diagnose, evaluate, and treat a substance use disorder or a co-occurring mental health disorder; or
• Behavioral health services, including diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment. (Note: Behavioral health recipients must have an in-person visit with their behavioral health provider no more than six months before their initial telehealth appointment and annually thereafter);
• When the patient lives, or is located, in a health professional shortage area (HPSA), a rural census track, or a county outside of the metropolitan statistical area at the time of service AND the patient is located at an approved telehealth location during the visit.

Source: cms.gov

Michele Krpata, BSW, CPC, CPMA

Compliance Officer, Quality Reporting Analyst

Integrated Physicians Management Services

99 East River Drive, 5^th Floor

East Hartford, CT 06108