WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema cosponsored the bipartisan Telehealth Modernization Act—legislation that makes permanent some telehealth flexibilities and access for seniors that were originally authorized during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
“Making telehealth options permanent for Medicare beneficiaries ensures Arizona seniors can receive quality health care in the comfort of their own homes,” said Sinema.
The bipartisan Telehealth Modernization Act enhances telehealth access to Medicare beneficiaries by eliminating Medicare’s geographic and originating site restrictions, expanding types of practitioners eligible to provide Medicare-covered telehealth services, expanding the list of telehealth services covered during the pandemic emergency period, permanently allowing federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as eligible distant sites for telehealth services, and permanently allowing use of telehealth to conduct face-to-face clinical assessments for home dialysis and face-to-face encounters for hospice care.
During the pandemic and the previous Congress, Sinema urged Senate leadership and relevant agencies to make permanent expanded access to telehealth services. Sinema cosponsored the bipartisan CONNECT for Health Act, which removes barriers to telehealthcoverage by cutting red tape and removing geographic restrictions, while increasing program oversight and integrity, and providing permanent access to health care services after the pandemic.