Visiting a doctor is easier when the appointment can take place from home. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become a common option for many patients. For routine visits, it can lower costs, expand access, and bring badly needed competition to healthcare markets. Yet its biggest obstacles are not technological. They are political. Federal policymakers continue to treat it as a temporary pandemic-era exception, while states preserve licensing and regulatory barriers that protect established providers from competition. Congress should make telehealth a permanent part of Medicare, and states should remove restrictions that prevent patients from seeking remote care.
Telehealth gives patients an opportunity to choose providers based on price, quality, and availability rather than physical location. Yet Congress has not permanently adopted the Medicare telehealth flexibilities created during the pandemic. These flexibilities are temporary rules that allow Medicare patients to receive more types of care remotely. Instead of making those rules permanent, Congress has repeatedly extended them for limited periods.
Justin Leventhal is a Senior Policy Analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization that advocates for consumers through evidence-based analysis and data. Follow Justin on X @JustinLeventhal