the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee advanced 21 bills to extend Medicare beneficiaries' access to telehealth services for two years, paid for by pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reforms and Medicare clinical laboratory payment cuts; increase access to remote monitoring services; encourage innovation in pediatric rare disease cancer treatments, and more.

Although the initial version of the Telehealth Modernization Act (H.R. 7623) sought to permanently extend COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities under Medicare, which expire this year, a substitute amendment scaled it back to two years, aligning with the two-year telehealth extension bill approved by the Ways and Means Committee last week. Both bills also include a five-year extension of waivers for the Acute Hospital Care at Home program.

The committee did not vote on two rare disease drug bills that had been scheduled for votes: Retaining Access and Restoring Exclusivity (RARE) Act (H.R. 7383) and Creating Hope Reauthorization Act of 2024 (H.R. 7384). Click here for the full list of bills and amendments.

More information is available here.

Additional information is also available in the attached WCEY Alert.