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Two bills recently introduced in the House aim to permanently extend rural telehealth access and expand the list of practitioners able to provide virtual care.The first bill would permanently allow federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) to provide telehealth services. FQHCs and RHCs began receiving reimbursement for telehealth services through the Medicare program during the COVID-19 pandemic. This flexibility is currently set to expire at the end of 2024.“Rural communities, like those in Wisconsin’s Third District, are routinely left on the sidelines when it comes to accessible health care,” said Van Orden in a press release. “We recently had multiple hospitals in the rural parts of my district shut down with little notice, and now many of my constituents are without nearby medical services. Expanding telehealth access is an important step in bridging the gap between rural and urban communities and helps ensure that folks, no matter where they are, can receive safe, quality care.”
Research shows that telehealth has helped improve healthcare access in rural America. For instance, a study published in 2022 revealed that telehealth increased appointment completion rates in rural areas. For the study, researchers examined data for 110,999 rural patient visits, of which 13,013 occurred through telehealth. They found that telehealth drove appointment completion rates up by about 20 percent.The second bill, introduced in the House on April 30, would permanently expand the list of healthcare practitioners eligible to provide telehealth services. The expanded list includes physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and audiologists. The waiver that expanded the list of eligible telehealth providers expires on December 31, 2024, which would cut off virtual access to various needed services, especially in rural areas.
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