YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityMedicare would pay for video visits from home for good — not just for those in rural areas.
Your Money
Medicare's video visit rules now pay mostly for patients in rural areas. That limit would end for good. A visit from your own home would count, anywhere in the country.
Right now, people who get mental health care by video must see someone in person every six months. That rule would be dropped. It would also be dropped at rural clinics and community health centers.
Community health centers and rural clinics could bill Medicare for video visits with no end date. They would be paid at their own Medicare rates, starting October 1, 2025.
A video visit could start at a clinic run by the Indian Health Service, a tribe, or a Native Hawaiian health system. Where the clinic sits would not matter. Medicare would not pay it the usual site fee.
Hospice care must be renewed at 180 days. Before that, a doctor or nurse must meet the patient face to face. That meeting could be done by video for good. Congress would get a study of the results in three years.
Corporate Benefits
A federal law fines providers who give Medicare patients gifts to win their business. Handing a patient the device or service needed for video visits would be exempt. It just cannot be advertised.
Transparency & Accountability
The watchdog office at Health and Human Services could get $3 million a year. That runs from 2026 through 2030. The money pays for audits of telehealth billing.
Medicare would compare each doctor's telehealth billing with others in the same field and area. Doctors far outside the norm would be told. Combined totals would go online, with no names.
Within 180 days, Medicare would start posting telehealth data on its website. New data would come every three months. It would show who used telehealth, which services, and what it cost.
The health secretary could let more types of health workers bill for video visits. The public could weigh in on that at least once a year. It would be looked at again no more often than every three years.
Several telehealth rules in current law stop on September 30, 2025 unless Congress acts. Striking those dates keeps the rules going. No new vote would be needed.
More about this bill
If you have Medicare, you could see a doctor by video from home. Where you live would no longer matter. The CONNECT for Health Act would remove the rural-area limit on paid video visits. It would also strike the September 30, 2025 end dates now written into those rules. Community health centers and rural clinics could keep treating patients by video. Starting January 1, 2026, Indian Health Service, tribal, and Native Hawaiian facilities could host video visits too. Two required in-person visits would go away. People getting mental health care by video would no longer need an office visit every six months. The doctor check-in needed to renew hospice care could be done by video for good. Congress would get a study of that change within three years. During a future public health emergency, health officials could waive Medicare's video rules again. They could also open video billing to more types of health workers, with public comment each year. New money would go to fraud checks. Medicare's inspector general would get $3 million a year from 2026 through 2030 for telehealth audits. Medicare would spot doctors whose telehealth billing is far out of line with others in their field. Those doctors would be notified, and the totals would be posted publicly without names. Medicare would also post telehealth use, spending, and results every three months. Providers could give patients a tablet or internet service to make video visits work, without risking a fine. HHS would publish help for people who have disabilities or limited English.
Congressional Summary
Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2025 or the CONNECT for Health Act of 2025 This bill expands coverage of telehealth services under Medicare. Among other provisions, the bill permanently removes geographic restrictions on originating sites (i.e., the location of the beneficiary) and allows the home of the beneficiary to serve as the originating site for all services; permanently allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site (i.e., the location of the health care practitioner); and allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to generally waive coverage restrictions during any public health emergency. Additionally, the CMS must post certain information about the effects of Medicare telehealth services on its website, including information about utilization, costs, and the outcome of services. The CMS must also (1) provide resources to health care professionals about the requirements for furnishing telehealth services under Medicare, including with respect to payment, patient privacy, and support for underserved populations; and (2) ensure certain quality measures are applied to telehealth services.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-04-02
- Date Added
- 2026-05-05
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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