Each week while Congress is in session, our Policy team delivers a key update to highlight a topical benefits, health, or retirement news item from the Hill, such as a newly introduced bill, a summary of a committee hearing, or another hot-button matter.
On June 12, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up 13 health bills. Not included in the markup was legislation to make permanent pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities. In her opening remarks, Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said that she was “optimistic” that a fully paid for telehealth extension package would move through the committee “before the August recess and well before those authorities expire at the end of the year.”
Committee work on such legislation has already begun. On May 16, the House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee unanimously advanced legislation (the Telehealth Modernization Act of 2024, H.R. 7623)to extend for two years COVID-era telehealth flexibilities. The committee is reportedly still waiting on a score from the Congressional Budget Office before it is able to take up the legislation. On May 8, the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously passed the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act, H.R. 8261, which also provides for a two-year extension. The bills have different funding mechanisms and will need to be reconciled before telehealth legislation advances to the full House.
