Medscape October 13, 2025
The ongoing US government partial shutdown has unintended consequences for seniors and their doctors as most telehealth appointments are now no longer being covered by Medicare.
That’s because without a budget deal, federal lawmakers did not renew some pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities allowing Medicare beneficiaries to have medical appointments with doctors over audio or video at home.
This policy was first put into place under the first Trump administration in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Previously, Medicare covered very limited telehealth services for rural patients.
For the past 5 years, lawmakers have always managed to renew the telehealth flexibilities in every government funding bill before the expiration date. This year, however, they expired for the first time on October 1.
Federal...
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