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Expanded Telehealth Access Act
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand the scope of practitioners eligible for payment for telehealth services under the Medicare program, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill expands Medicare coverage for telehealth services by adding new categories of healthcare practitioners eligible for payment. Newly eligible practitioners include audiologists, occupational therapists and assistants, physical therapists and assistants, and speech-language pathologists. The bill also allows facilities to furnish certain services through telehealth and gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority to add additional providers as appropriate. These changes take effect on the date of enactment.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Daines, Steve [R-MT] (R-MT)
1 cosponsor
- Sen. Smith, Tina [D-MN] (D-MN)
Actions (2)
- Feb 11, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Feb 11, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 11, 2026
Mr. Daines (for himself and Ms. Smith) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to expand the scope of practitioners eligible for payment for telehealth services under the Medicare program, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Expanded Telehealth Access Act”.
SEC. 2. EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF PRACTITIONERS ELIGIBLE FOR PAYMENT FOR TELEHEALTH SERVICES UNDER MEDICARE.
Section 1834(m) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395m(m)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (2)(A)—
(A) by inserting “(or, in the case of an occupational therapy assistant described in paragraph
(4)(E)(ii)(II) or a physical therapist assistant described in paragraph (4)(E)(ii)(III), shall pay with respect to such assistant)” before “located at a distant site”; and
(B) by inserting “(or, in the case of an occupational therapy assistant described in paragraph
(4)(E)(ii)(II) or a physical therapist assistant described in paragraph (4)(E)(ii)(III), the amount that would have been paid under this title with respect to such assistant)” after “would have been paid under this title”;
(2) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking “under such section” and inserting “described in subparagraph (C) of such section”; and
(3) in paragraph (4), by striking subparagraph (E) and inserting the following:
“(E) Practitioner.—The term ‘practitioner’ means any of the following:
“(i) A practitioner described in section 1842(b)(18)(C).
“(ii) With respect to services furnished on or after the date of the enactment of the Expanded Telehealth Access Act—
“(I) a qualified audiologist (as defined in section 1861(ll)(4)(B));
“(II) a qualified occupational therapist and an occupational therapy assistant under the supervision of a qualified occupational therapist;
“(III) a qualified physical therapist and a physical therapist assistant under the supervision of a qualified physical therapist;
“(IV) a qualified speech-language pathologist (as defined in section 1861(ll)(4)(A));
“(V) a facility that furnishes services described in paragraph (8) or
(9) of section 1833(a) through telehealth; and
“(VI) any additional provider of services or supplier, as specified by the Secretary, who is enrolled under section 1866(j) and furnishes a telehealth service.”. <all>
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