CONNECT for Health Act Permanently Ends Telehealth Geographic Limits, Starting October 2025

The Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2025 is a major overhaul of how Medicare handles remote healthcare. This bill takes the temporary telehealth flexibilities that became common during the pandemic and makes them permanent, fundamentally changing how—and where—millions of Americans can see a doctor.

The End of Location, Location, Location

If you’re a Medicare beneficiary, the biggest change here is that the old rules dictating where you had to be to receive telehealth services are gone. Starting October 1, 2025 (Sec. 101), Medicare will no longer enforce geographic requirements for telehealth. Before this, you often had to be in a designated rural area or specific facility type to qualify for remote care coverage. This change means if you live in a dense city or a suburban area, you will have the same access to covered telehealth services as someone in a remote rural town. Furthermore, the bill permanently expands the list of places where a patient can be located (the “originating site”) when receiving care, removing the sunset dates that were previously set for September 30, 2025 (Sec. 102).

Mental Health Care Gets a Fast Pass

For anyone needing mental health support, this bill is a huge win for speed and convenience. It completely repeals the requirement that a Medicare patient must have an in-person visit within six months before starting telemental health services (Sec. 106). This means if you need to start seeing a therapist or psychiatrist remotely, you can skip the logistical hurdle of finding and getting to an initial in-person appointment. This change is particularly vital for people with mobility issues or those who live far from specialists.

Who Gets to Be Your Digital Doctor?

Currently, Medicare limits which types of practitioners can provide telehealth services. This bill gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) new authority, starting October 1, 2025, to waive these limitations if they determine it is “clinically appropriate” (Sec. 103). This could open the door for more types of specialized providers—like certain therapists or dietitians—to offer remote services. However, the Secretary must set program integrity rules and review any waiver every three years. While this flexibility is great for access, it introduces a medium level of vagueness: the quality and appropriateness of new practitioner types will hinge entirely on the Secretary’s judgment and the effectiveness of the three-year review cycle.

Cracking Down on Digital Fraud

While expanding access, the bill also beefs up oversight. Title II focuses on program integrity, recognizing that more money flowing into remote services requires more scrutiny. The bill allocates an additional $3 million annually from fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to the HHS Inspector General specifically for audits and investigations into technology-based care (Sec. 202). This dedicated funding signals that the government is serious about preventing fraud in the expanded telehealth landscape.

Another key clarification is for providers: giving patients technology (like a tablet or blood pressure monitor) so they can receive covered telehealth or remote monitoring services will not automatically be considered illegal kickbacks or fraud, provided it meets specific rules set by the Secretary (Sec. 201). This removes a massive legal gray area that previously discouraged providers from equipping patients for remote care.

Billing Outliers and Quality Control

The Secretary is also tasked with identifying practitioners who show “significant outlier billing patterns” for telehealth compared to their peers in the same specialty and geographic area (Sec. 203). If a doctor is flagged, they won't automatically be audited, but they will receive a notification comparing their billing to the norm and providing educational materials. This is an effort to use data to nudge providers toward compliance before issues escalate. Separately, the bill mandates that all existing and future quality-of-care measures must be reviewed and updated to include telehealth services, ensuring that remote care is held to the same standards as in-person visits (Sec. 303).

In short, the CONNECT Act aims to make telehealth a reliable, permanent fixture in American healthcare, not just an emergency backup. It clears away the red tape that was holding back access for millions, particularly those needing mental health services, while simultaneously funding the necessary infrastructure to keep the system honest and focused on quality.