Senior citizens are rattled by news that Medicare telehealth coverage could expire next month
Medicare telehealth has bipartisan support. Senior citizens hope that means Congress will act to renew it before it expires on March 31.
For Kaye Peterson, 67, the expansion of Medicare telehealth coverage during Covid-19 was a godsend.
Peterson, who has Type 1 diabetes and lives in an assisted living facility, no longer drives, so she depends on extended family when she needs in-person appointments with specialists who are roughly an hour away from her home in Lebanon, Kentucky. But for routine primary care, she simply uses her iPhone.
Soon that may no longer be possible. On March 31, Medicare telehealth “flexibilities” established during the Covid-19 pandemic are set to expire. Recent social media posts, including the one that alerted Peterson to the change, have prompted an outcry from beneficiaries and their families who rely on the service.
“I’m in a care facility full of people in wheelchairs and on oxygen,” Peterson said. “It’s just a commonsense rule that needs to be extended.”
Health advocates say the telemedicine options now at risk are particularly important for older adults who are homebound or, like Peterson, live in rural communities far from their doctors’ offices.
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