Major Medicare Change Gets Delayed at the Last Minute (But Is Still Coming)

If you're among the 65 million Americans enrolled in Medicare, you rely on your affordable, government-sponsored healthcare to lower your financial stress during retirement. 

However, Medicare is about to undergo a massive change: Starting on September 30, Medicare will no longer cover telehealth visits. This means that if you opt to continue using telehealth services, you'll have to start footing the bill yourself.

Below, we'll explain more about the change, including what it means, who it affects, and what financial consequences you can expect going forward.

Telehealth is a service that lets you connect with a medical professional remotely. Instead of driving to a doctor's office to meet with your medical service provider in person, you can connect with a doctor virtually using your phone or computer. 

Popular telehealth services include counseling sessions, regular check-ups, and diagnoses for common illnesses like the cold or flu.

Telehealth can also involve messaging your doctor and care team over a secure app to ask questions about care outside of regular office hours. 

Some doctors also use telehealth services in conjunction with remote patient monitoring (RPM) tools that can allow you to do things like check your blood pressure or blood sugar from home.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government expanded Medicare coverage to include virtual telehealth appointments. This measure helped patients access crucial medical services without risking exposure to the virus during an in-person office visit.

In December of 2024, the American Relief Act extended Medicare's telehealth funding for an additional three months. 

Until the middle of March 2025, it was unclear whether Medicare's telehealth funding would be extended again or if telehealth coverage would end on April 1, 2025.

Luckily for anyone who relies on Medicare, a recent Congressional funding bill signed into law on March 15 extended funding for telehealth services for an additional six months. This means Medicare patients should be able to access telehealth services until Sept. 30, 2025.

After that point, Congress could choose to extend additional funding to ensure Medicare patients can still get telehealth services. If it doesn't, you'll have to pay for telehealth services out of pocket starting Oct. 1, 2025.

While patients across the country rely on telehealth services for fast, convenient doctor's appointments, the loss of coverage will likely impact rural Medicare patients more than urban and suburban patients.

The loss of coverage will also disproportionately impact lower-income Medicare patients, including retirees living on a fixed budget, and disabled patients who have a hard time leaving the house.

Even once general telehealth services are no longer covered by Medicare, a few exceptions will remain to Medicare's in-person visit requirements.

Specifically, monthly home dialysis visits for individuals with end-stage renal disease, acute stroke diagnoses and treatments via mobile stroke units, and mental and behavioral health treatments — such as virtual therapy — will still be covered by Medicare.

The end of telehealth funding only applies to those using Original Medicare. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, your private insurance provider may continue to cover virtual healthcare services — or it could opt to follow the federal government's example by ending coverage.

If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, check with your insurance carrier for more information on whether telehealth services will continue to be covered or not.

Additionally, some healthcare providers who belong to one of Original Medicare's Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) may continue to offer telehealth coverage. Your current ACO-affiliated provider should be able to give you information specific to your plan.

If telehealth coverage under Medicare isn't expanded again before the end of September, telehealth patients have two choices: continue to pay for telehealth out of pocket or switch to an in-person healthcare provider.

Don't wait until the change happens to explore your options — as you certainly know from experience, getting an appointment with a new provider can take months. You don't want to be left without a primary care provider once telehealth coverage expires.

Hopefully, telehealth will be covered under Medicare for much longer than September 30. 

But if coverage ends, you can still protect your bottom line and ensure you're doing better financially by pivoting to a nearby in-person provider who accepts Medicare instead of paying out of pocket.

If coverage does end, but your need for telehealth coverage does not, you may want to consider finding a side hustle to cover those extra bills.