Doctors cancel medicare telehealth visits as coverage lapses
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Healthcare providers across the United States are canceling telehealth appointments for Medicare beneficiaries after Congress allowed key coverage provisions to lapse on September 30, disrupting care for millions of older adults and people with disabilities, according to a report from The Lewiston Tribune.
Medicare lapse triggers patient disruptions and confusion
The end of government funding brought some of these health policies to a grinding halt, including measures that guaranteed Medicare would reimburse telehealth visits. Since Congress did not reapprove these policies in time, physicians and clinics must now wonder if they will ever be reimbursed for virtual visits, leaving them no choice but to cancel appointments or ask for payment from patients out of pocket.
“It’s already leading to widespread disruptions and it’s something that need not have happened,” said Kyle Zebley, Executive Director of the American Telemedicine Association Action, which advocates for permanent Medicare telehealth coverage.
He added that patients who have relied on telehealth out of necessity are now being left on their own, not due to medical reasons, but because Congress has failed to take action.
Before 2020, Medicare’s telehealth coverage was largely restricted to rural communities, requiring beneficiaries to visit a clinic even for virtual appointments. But the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly transformed telehealth access. Temporary policies introduced during that period allowed beneficiaries to consult with doctors from home, a change that boosted telehealth use to record levels.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), 15% of traditional Medicare beneficiaries received telehealth services in the first quarter of 2025, and nearly 30% of disabled beneficiaries used them.
For patients like Charis Hill, a 38-year-old from Northern California living with ankylosing spondylitis, the lapse has real-world consequences. Hill was informed that their upcoming telehealth appointment would not be covered.
“I was basically told, ‘You need to contact Medicare,’” Hill said, adding that they fear losing access to their specialist and necessary medication.
Telehealth’s role and ripple effects across healthcare and outsourcing
Telehealth is also providing an important bridge connection among healthcare practitioners and patients, enhancing access, efficiency, and safety, especially for disabled or immunocompromised individuals.
It also facilitates the expanded healthcare infrastructure by enabling hospitals and providers to outsource administration and supporting functions, such as scheduling of teleconsultation, billing, and patient triage, to expert service providers.
This outsourcing of telehealth makes healthcare systems operate more efficiently and manage higher patient volumes, particularly in the event of staff shortages. Telehealth coverage gaps, however, endanger these web-based and virtual service networks, consequently promoting job insecurity for health-related business process outsourcing (BPO) segments that manage Medicare-related virtual care services.
Jeffrey Davis, a director at McDermott+, noted that providers now face a dilemma. “There’s an expectation that Congress will provide a retroactive fix, but there’s obviously no guarantee that will happen,” he said. “Folks are confused.”
A bipartisan bill sponsored by a U.S. Senator. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, which has enough co-sponsors to pass the Senate, would temporarily restore telehealth coverage. However, cost concerns, estimated at $25 billion over 10 years, continue to stall action.
Zebley remains hopeful that this moment of disruption will prompt lasting reform. “I’m hopeful this will be an opportunity to work with President Trump and Congress and use this as a rallying cry for why we need permanence,” he said.
As patients and providers wait, the future of telehealth, and the interconnected ecosystem of outsourced healthcare services that supports it, remains uncertain.
