The State of Telehealth Services for Psychiatry

Originally Posted 9/2025, Last Updated 11/13/2025: The recently-passed spending resolution extends Medicare telehealth coverage and the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) program through Jan. 30, 2026, and retroactively allows for payments on these services during the period where coverage lapsed during the government shutdown.

Future funding agreements may further extend or change this coverage. We will do our best to keep this article up-to-date with the latest information.

As we reckon with the “telehealth cliff” of September 30, 2025, the expansion of Medicare coverage for telehealth visits that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to expire – including the waiver for in-person visit requirements. If Medicare patients do not meet the location-based requirements, their coverage will instead hinge on meeting the in-person visit requirements.

Without congressional action, Medicare patients also lose access to audio-only visits for non-behavioral health, home-based coverage, and expanded provider eligibility, coverage which has previously been extended multiple times over the last five years. These policy rollbacks will especially impact populations already facing inequities, as older adults and low-income households continue to struggle with the digital divide, language barriers, and a lack of privacy at home.

Our recent whitepaper explores these policy issues and the evolving landscape of telehealth services in the United States, especially for psychiatry and behavioral health, also examining how telehealth has enabled healthcare delivery beyond traditional office settings.