Congress Extends Telehealth for Three Months but Fails to Stop Medicare Payment Cuts

December 21, 2024

Late Friday night, Congress passed the American Relief Act (H.R. 10545), a short-term federal government spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, which President Biden has signed into law. The bill includes two provisions impacting audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs):

A provision for audiologists and SLPs to be paid by Medicare for telehealth services provided through March 31, 2025.
A provision waiving the 4% across-the-board PAYGO cut that was scheduled to take effect January 1, 2025, but does not address the 2.8% Medicare Part B payment cut.

While an initial package included a more robust solution to address ASHA's advocacy priorities, including a two-year extension of telehealth and a 2.5% Medicare payment increase, it did not have the support of the incoming Administration and was, unfortunately, scrapped.

Extension of Telehealth Authority Under Medicare

The bill offers a short-term three-month extension of the authority for audiologists and SLPs to continue providing telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries through March 31, 2025.
Although the 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule includes audiologists and SLPs billing for telehealth services, congressional action was still required to provide that authority.

ASHA is advocating for a longer extension and permanent Medicare telehealth authority for audiologists and SLPs through enactment of the Expanded Telehealth Access Act, which will need to be reintroduced in the 119th Congress.

Medicare Part B Cuts

In total, audiologists and SLPs will face an approximate 4.8% cut in Medicare Part B payments next year. The provisions in H.R. 10545 only partially reduces the previously expected 8.8% to 4.8% for 2025.

The bill does not reverse the 2.8% Medicare Part B conversion factor payment cut scheduled for 2025 resulting from the budget neutrality requirement of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
The bill does not eliminate the 2% sequestration cut.
The bill does, however, waive the 4% across-the-board PAYGO cut.

ASHA is committed to stopping the cuts more fully and developing a solution that provides longer-term payment stability. Read more about the various budget control mechanisms that precipitated these cuts.

What’s Next?

President Biden has signed H.R. 10545 into law, but the bill only authorized audiologists and SLPs to continue providing and billing Medicare for telehealth services through March and partially addressed Medicare payment cuts. ASHA is committed to addressing these issues for our members.

The newly elected members of the 119th Congress will be sworn in on January 3, 2025, kicking off a flurry of activity to ensure federal funding priorities are addressed.
Congress is expected to take additional action to fund the federal government and may address other federal priorities by March 14, 2025.
ASHA—along with other groups representing clinicians supporting telehealth and opposing Medicare cuts—are pushing for permanent Medicare telehealth authority and higher Medicare payments to be included in that funding legislation. There is precedent for such changes as Congress took similar action around the same time earlier this year.

The Government Affairs and Public Policy Board developed the 2025 Public Policy Agenda for audiologists and SLPs based on input from ASHA members that includes priorities to secure and expand permanent coverage of telehealth services and to protect and improve payment.