Congress Extends Medicare Telehealth Authority Through September

The Top Line

Last week Congress passed, and the President signed into law, H.R. 1968, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025. The law extends the authority of audiologists and speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to provide telehealth services to Medicare beneficiaries through September 30, 2025. See our previous updates from December, January, and early March for more information about past developments on this issue.

What Is ASHA Doing?

ASHA is aggressively working to secure permanent Medicare telehealth authority for audiologists and SLPs. We expect the Expanded Telehealth Access Act—legislation ASHA helped develop that would have added audiologists, SLPs, physical therapists, and occupational therapists as permanent Medicare telehealth providers—will be reintroduced within weeks. We will highlight ways for ASHA advocates to urge their federal representatives to support this legislation once that happens.

During the last Congress, ASHA helped develop and supports legislation called the Expanded Telehealth Access Act, which would have added audiologists, SLPs, physical therapists, and occupational therapists as permanent Medicare telehealth providers. Since the Expanded Telehealth Access Act was not enacted by December 2024, the bill must be reintroduced in the current Congress before it can be enacted into law. Learn more about the federal legislative process with our “How a Need Becomes a Federal Law” resource.

What Can Advocates Do?

You can send messages to your members of Congress asking them to support permanent Medicare telehealth authority for members of the professions. As their constituent, your voice matters the most. This will strengthen ASHA’s efforts to ensure that telehealth authority is extended or made permanent in the next government funding bill or other legislative vehicle that needs to be enacted before September 30, 2025.

Will This Impact Medicaid?

No. Medicare and Medicaid are different. The current threats to Medicaid are unrelated to the government funding deadline. Medicare telehealth authority has no immediate impact on Medicaid telehealth authority, which varies from state to state. Check directly with your state Medicaid agency to learn more about telehealth coverage in your state. Learn more and take action to protect Medicaid here.

Questions?

Contact Josh Krantz, ASHA’s director of federal affairs, health care, at jkrantz@asha.org if you have questions or want additional information about how to engage in federal legislative advocacy to support permanent Medicare telehealth authority for audiologists and SLPs.