Medicare expands rural telehealth access, removes geographic barriers permanently
H.R. 5496 — HEALTH Act of 2025 · Filed by Glenn Thompson (R-PA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill makes telehealth services permanently available and fully reimbursable under Medicare when delivered by federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs), removing geographic restrictions and allowing audio-only visits. It ensures these providers are paid the same way for telehealth as in-person care and eliminates requirements that patients visit a specific physical location to receive remote care.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to permanently authorize and fund telehealth delivery by rural and federally qualified health centers under Medicare, removing prior geographic and site-of-service restrictions. This is straightforward healthcare access legislation.
What the text implies
- Permanent codification of audio-only telehealth may reduce in-person visit rates at rural clinics, potentially affecting local clinic staffing and facility utilization patterns.
- Removal of originating-site facility fees for FQHC/RHC telehealth may shift reimbursement dynamics, reducing revenue to independent originating sites (e.g., small rural hospitals or clinics) that previously collected facility fees.
- The bill does not address parity between telehealth and in-person reimbursement rates, meaning payment levels remain subject to existing Medicare fee schedules, which may not fully reflect telehealth delivery costs.
Who it affects
Rural and underserved patients gain permanent access to affordable telehealth without geographic barriers, reducing travel burden and expanding care options. Medicare beneficiaries in remote areas benefit from expanded provider choice and continuity of care. The bill codifies pandemic-era flexibilities into permanent law, stabilizing access.
Who stands to gain
- federally qualified health centers
- rural health clinics
- telehealth technology vendors serving FQHCs/RHCs
- Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas (reduced out-of-pocket travel costs)
Named in the bill
Medicare, Social Security Act Section 1834, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), rural health clinics (RHCs), HHS Secretary, Code of Federal Regulations 42 CFR 410.78, 405.2463, prospective payment system (PPS)
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Sep 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 18, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $213,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 11 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Glenn Thompson, the sponsor, reported $1,046,943 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Association of Community Health Centers — $213,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 2, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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