As shutdown persists, pain grows for hospital-at-home, telehealth programs

Chief Healthcare Executive October 16, 2025
Ron Southwick

Medicare waivers supporting telehealth programs expired Oct. 1. Providers are angry over an interruption that they say should have been avoided and needs to be resolved.

With Congress making no progress in ending the partial government shutdown, health systems and providers offering telehealth and hospital-at-home programs grow angrier each day.

Millions of Americans use Medicare to access telehealth programs, and Medicare also offered waivers for health systems to provide acute care at home. Those waivers expired when the short-term federal spending bill lapsed at the end of September.

Lawmakers in Congress have expressed broad support for telehealth and hospital-at-home programs, and they are casualties in the bigger spending clash. Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of the American Telemedicine Association, says...

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