CONNECT for Health Act Permanently Expands Medicare Telehealth, Scrapping Location Limits and In-Person Mental Health Visits

The "Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) for Health Act of 2025" is essentially the long-term plan for telehealth in Medicare. It takes the flexibility we saw during the pandemic and makes it permanent policy, aiming to stabilize remote care delivery for millions of Americans.

The End of the Waiting Room Line

Starting October 1, 2025, the biggest change hits: Medicare scraps the geographic restrictions for telehealth services (Sec. 101). Think of it this way—before, you often had to be in a rural area or at an approved clinic location to have your virtual visit covered. That rule is gone. If you’re a busy professional in a city or a retired worker in the suburbs, your virtual appointment with a specialist will be covered the same way as if you were in a designated rural clinic. This means much less time spent driving and waiting, and more time getting actual care.

This bill also finally removes the outdated requirement that Medicare patients needed an in-person visit before starting telemental health services (Sec. 106). For anyone dealing with the logistics of mental health care—juggling work, family, and appointments—this is huge. It means immediate access to therapy or psychiatry via video or phone, eliminating a major barrier to getting help quickly.

Who Can Treat You, and Where

The CONNECT Act expands who can offer remote care and where that care can originate. Crucially, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) gets the authority to waive existing rules and allow more types of practitioners to provide telehealth if it’s deemed "clinically appropriate" (Sec. 103). This could mean more specialized therapists or other healthcare professionals could start seeing Medicare patients remotely, potentially easing specialist shortages.

For Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs)—the backbone of care in underserved areas—telehealth visits will be treated and paid just like standard in-person outpatient visits starting October 1, 2025 (Sec. 104). This provides financial stability, ensuring these critical centers can invest in the technology needed to keep offering remote services.

There's also a specific provision for Native American health facilities (IHS, tribal organizations). Starting January 1, 2026, they too get location flexibility, meaning they can deliver telehealth without the previous originating site restrictions (Sec. 105). However, there's a catch: if they qualify as an originating site only under this new waiver, they won't receive the separate originating site facility fee. While they gain flexibility, they lose that specific payment, which could pose a financial hurdle for some facilities.

Keeping the Watchdogs Happy

With all this expansion, the bill dedicates significant effort to program integrity, which is good news for taxpayers and honest providers. Title II clarifies that providing necessary technology (like a tablet for remote monitoring) to a Medicare beneficiary for telehealth purposes won't be considered illegal kickbacks or fraud, provided it meets certain conditions and isn't used for advertising (Sec. 201). This removes a massive legal gray area that often stalled innovation.

To keep things honest, the bill allocates an extra $3 million annually to the HHS Inspector General from 2026 through 2030, specifically for telehealth oversight (Sec. 202). More importantly, the government must now identify providers whose telehealth billing patterns are significantly outside the norm for their specialty and region (Sec. 203). These "outlier billers" will receive educational letters comparing their data to their peers, along with training resources. This is a proactive, educational approach to catching potential abuse before it becomes a major fraud case.

Making Sure Telehealth Works for Everyone

Finally, the bill focuses on ensuring quality and access for all patients. It mandates that HHS create guidance and training for providers on how to effectively use telehealth with two specific groups: people with limited English proficiency (including interpreter services) and people with disabilities (requiring accessible communication systems) (Sec. 301). This is a crucial step toward ensuring that the digital divide doesn't become a healthcare divide.

Additionally, the law requires that telehealth outcomes be included when measuring the overall quality of care in Medicare (Sec. 303). If we’re going to use telehealth, we need to know it actually works. Two years after enactment, HHS must report back to Congress on how these quality metrics are performing. This move ensures that the convenience of telehealth doesn't come at the expense of effective treatment.