Submitted on Mon, 03/14/2022 - 00:00

UPDATED March 14, 2022

Open State of Affairs 

The PPS COVID-19 State of Affairs document is updated weekly, with the newest information highlighted in red, to help you keep abreast of the most recent legislative and regulatory updates. Here are some important notes this week:

The Public Health Emergency (PHE) has been extended again and will be in place through mid-January 2022. PTs and PTAs are able to provide care to Medicare beneficiaries via telehealth only for the duration of the PHE.  Whereas, PTs will be able to use virtual audio/visual technologies to achieve direct supervision until the end of the calendar year in which the PHE ends—through at least the end of 2022.

Medicare Coverage of Telehealth:

  • Physical therapists are eligible to provide and bill for Medicare services, as of 4/30/20 with a retroactive coverage date for claims beginning March 1, 2020. The Omnibus Federal Spending bill signed into law on March 11, 2022 includes a 151 day (~5 month) extension of Medicare coverage for real-time, face-to-face services provided by physical therapists and physical therapist assistants via telehealth after the Public Health Emergency (PHE) expires. 
  • The current expiration date of the PHE is April 16, 2022. However, the administration has promised a 60 days "heads up" that they don't plan to renew the PHE; no such warning has been provided. Therefore it is anticipated that the PHE will be renewed in April and expire mid-July 2022. 
  • Some waivers linked to the PHE expire when the PHE expires, some like the use of telehealth have been singled out for an extension, while others expire at the end of the year in which the PHE ends.

What We Don’t Know:

  • When/If/How MACs will audit
  • Whether Congress will pursue another extension of current waivers or provide a permanent path to telehealth coverage for services provided by PTs and PTAs.

What You Can Do Now:

  • Advocacy Opportunity: Contact your Member of Congress and ask them to pass legislation to permanently enable physical therapists to provide physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries via telehealth.
  • Request that they cosponsor the Expanded Telehealth Access Act (S.3193/H.R.2168) which would permanently add physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, and other rehabilitation therapists to the statutory list of distant site providers that Medicare pays for telehealth.
  • Further ask that the text of the Expanded Telehealth Access Act be included in any long-term telehealth policy package that will be voted on by Congress.

Open State of Affairs