Does Medicare cover telehealth visits?

Yes. Medicare covers a range of telehealth services, including office visits, consultations, and certain therapy services conducted via two-way, real-time audio-video technology. The scope of coverage expanded significantly during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and Congress made several of those expansions permanent.

Do I have to be in a rural area to use Medicare telehealth?

For most non-behavioral-health telehealth services, geographic restrictions still apply — the patient must be in a designated rural area or a health professional shortage area. However, for mental health services, these geographic restrictions were lifted permanently. Patients anywhere in the country can receive behavioral health telehealth from Medicare-covered providers.

What is an originating site, and do I have to be at one?

Historically, Medicare required patients to be at an approved originating site — a medical facility such as a hospital, physician's office, or community mental health center — to receive telehealth. For behavioral health services, patients can now receive care from their home. For other services, home-as-originating-site is subject to the date extensions Congress authorized, and patients should verify current rules with their Medicare plan or provider.

What services does Medicare cover via telehealth?

CMS publishes an annual list of covered telehealth services. It includes office and outpatient visits at various complexity levels, consultations, psychotherapy and behavioral health services, substance use disorder treatment, diabetes management, and a growing number of chronic care services. The list changes each year through the CMS final rule.

Can I use audio-only (phone) visits with Medicare?

For behavioral health and mental health services, yes — Medicare permanently allows audio-only visits when the patient cannot or does not want to use video technology. For most other services, two-way audio-video is required. Audio-only visits for non-behavioral-health services may be temporarily authorized through congressional extensions.

Does Medicare Advantage cover telehealth differently?

Medicare Advantage plans may cover telehealth more broadly than Original Medicare, including services not on the CMS-approved telehealth list. Check your specific plan's evidence of coverage to understand what is covered, at what cost-sharing, and whether there are preferred telehealth networks.

What do I pay for a Medicare telehealth visit?

Cost-sharing for telehealth visits generally mirrors what you would pay for an in-person visit. A Medicare-covered telehealth office visit has the same Part B coinsurance (typically 20 percent after the deductible) as a comparable in-person visit. Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans may reduce this cost-sharing.

Can any provider offer me Medicare telehealth?

The provider must be enrolled in Medicare and must be licensed in the state where you are physically located during the visit. Providers who are enrolled in Medicare but not yet accepting Medicare patients (i.e., opted out) cannot bill for Medicare telehealth services.

US Healthcare · Getting Care

Medicare Telehealth Rules

Which telehealth services Medicare covers, geographic and originating site requirements, what COVID-era flexibilities became permanent, and audio-only visit rules for behavioral health.

Who this is for

Medicare beneficiaries who want to use telehealth for medical appointments, caregivers helping a Medicare enrollee access remote care, and patients in rural or underserved areas who need to know whether their location qualifies.

Medicare telehealth coverage has gone through more change in the past several years than in all the prior decades of the program combined. Understanding what is permanent, what is temporarily extended, and what still depends on where you live helps you access care without unexpected coverage gaps or bills. This page focuses on Original Medicare (Parts A and B); Medicare Advantage plans may cover more.

How Medicare telehealth worked before 2020

Before the COVID-19 public health emergency, Medicare telehealth coverage was narrow and tightly geographic. Two requirements applied simultaneously:

Originating site requirement: The patient had to be physically at an approved medical facility — not at home — when receiving telehealth services. Approved originating sites included physician offices, hospitals, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, skilled nursing facilities, and community mental health centers.
Geographic requirement: The originating site had to be in a qualifying rural area or a county that was not within a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), or it had to be in a health professional shortage area (HPSA). This effectively excluded the vast majority of Medicare beneficiaries who lived in cities and suburbs.

These restrictions reflected the original legislative intent of telehealth — to serve rural patients who lacked geographic access to specialists. They significantly limited telehealth’s reach.

What changed during the COVID-19 public health emergency

In March 2020, CMS used its emergency authority under the public health emergency declaration to waive most of the traditional restrictions. The changes included:

Patients could receive telehealth from home — the home became an originating site for all services, not just rural facility patients
Geographic restrictions were lifted — urban patients could receive Medicare telehealth regardless of location
New types of providers could bill for telehealth — physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and others were added
Audio-only visits were allowed — phone-only appointments became eligible when patients could not or would not use video
Mental health visit restrictions eased — behavioral health telehealth was expanded substantially

These waivers applied throughout the duration of the public health emergency and were repeatedly extended by Congress as the emergency ended.

What became permanent

Congress and CMS made several expansions permanent through legislation and rulemaking. As of the Consolidated Appropriations Act provisions that extended into 2026:

Service category	Permanent or extended
Behavioral health (mental health, substance use disorder)	Geographic restrictions permanently lifted; home as originating site permanently allowed; audio-only permanently allowed when video is unavailable or not preferred
FQHCs and Rural Health Clinics as distant sites	Permanent — these facilities can serve as the provider-side location for telehealth visits
Expanded provider types for mental health telehealth	Physical therapists, OTs, SLPs permanently included for behavioral health
Home as originating site for non-behavioral-health	Extended through multiple Consolidated Appropriations Acts; confirm current status

The behavioral health permanence is the most significant lasting change. A Medicare beneficiary anywhere in the country — in Manhattan or rural Montana — can now receive mental health therapy, psychiatric care, and substance use disorder treatment via telehealth from their home, with Medicare paying.

Geographic requirements that still apply

For most non-behavioral-health telehealth services, the pre-pandemic geographic requirements remain the baseline law. Under these rules, the patient must be in:

A non-metropolitan county, or
A county with a designated health professional shortage area (HPSA), or
A federally designated rural area

Medicare Advantage plans are not bound by these geographic restrictions and may offer telehealth to all their enrollees regardless of location.

What this means in practice: if you have Original Medicare and live in a city, your telehealth options under current law are concentrated in behavioral health, mental health, and services provided through extensions that Congress continues to renew. For primary care and specialist visits via telehealth, your access depends on whether the current extension is in effect and whether your specific visit type is on the approved list.

The role of FQHCs and Rural Health Clinics

Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) gained the permanent right to serve as distant sites — meaning the provider’s location — for Medicare telehealth. This is meaningful because FQHCs and RHCs tend to serve underserved communities, and their providers can now conduct telehealth visits billed to Medicare from those facilities.

If you receive your primary care at an FQHC or RHC, ask your provider whether they offer telehealth visits billed to Medicare for your specific condition or follow-up needs.

Audio-only visits: when they apply

The use of audio-only (phone) technology for Medicare telehealth is permanently allowed for behavioral health services when:

The patient is not capable of using video technology (lack of access, disability, or unfamiliarity), or
The patient does not consent to video

For non-behavioral-health services, audio-only was temporarily allowed during the PHE. Current status depends on the most recent congressional extension. CMS has signaled concern about audio-only quality for clinical services that benefit from visual examination.

A comparison of telehealth access by Medicare type

Feature	Original Medicare (Parts A & B)	Medicare Advantage
Geographic requirements for non-behavioral health	Apply (rural/HPSA) for base law; extensions may lift temporarily	Plans may waive — check your Evidence of Coverage
Behavioral health telehealth from home	Permanent	Permanent (at minimum)
Audio-only behavioral health	Permanent	Permanent (at minimum)
Telehealth provider types covered	Physicians, NPs, PAs, clinical psychologists, LCSW, OTs, PTs, SLPs (for behavioral health)	Plan may cover more
Cost-sharing for telehealth	Same as in-person visit	Per plan design

Documents and terms you’ll see

When navigating Medicare telehealth coverage, these terms appear in CMS publications, Medicare Summary Notices, and provider communications:

Originating site — where the patient is during the telehealth visit; rules about which locations qualify have changed and vary by service type

Distant site — where the provider is during the visit; the provider must be enrolled in Medicare and licensed in your state

Federally Qualified Health Center — a community health center that now qualifies as a distant site for Medicare telehealth

Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) — a federally designated area with insufficient healthcare providers; being in one may qualify you for Medicare telehealth services under the geographic restriction baseline

Verifying coverage before your appointment

Medicare telehealth coverage details change with annual CMS rulemaking and congressional action. Before your first telehealth visit:

Ask your provider whether the specific service is on the current CMS-approved telehealth services list.
Confirm that your provider is enrolled in Medicare and licensed in your state.
If you use a Medicare Advantage plan, call the plan’s member services line to ask what telehealth services are covered and at what cost-sharing.
Ask whether your specific situation — location, visit type, technology available — qualifies under current rules.

For cross-state telehealth licensing issues that affect both Medicare and private insurance patients, see the telehealth-across-state-lines page, and the broader telehealth guide for an overview of how telehealth works across plan types.

Key terms

Term	Plain meaning	Glossary
Originating site	The location where the Medicare patient is present during a telehealth visit; prior to COVID-era changes, this was required to be a qualifying medical facility in a rural area	→
Distant site	The location where the treating provider is present during a telehealth visit; the provider must be enrolled in Medicare and licensed in the patient's state	→
Federally Qualified Health Center	Community-based health provider that receives federal funding to provide care in underserved areas; allowed as a distant site for Medicare telehealth	→
Rural Health Clinic	A clinic certified under the Rural Health Clinic Services Act to serve patients in medically underserved rural areas; eligible as a distant site for Medicare telehealth	→

Common questions

Does Medicare cover telehealth visits?: Yes. Medicare covers a range of telehealth services, including office visits, consultations, and certain therapy services conducted via two-way, real-time audio-video technology. The scope of coverage expanded significantly during the COVID-19 public health emergency, and Congress made several of those expansions permanent.
Do I have to be in a rural area to use Medicare telehealth?: For most non-behavioral-health telehealth services, geographic restrictions still apply — the patient must be in a designated rural area or a health professional shortage area. However, for mental health services, these geographic restrictions were lifted permanently. Patients anywhere in the country can receive behavioral health telehealth from Medicare-covered providers.
What is an originating site, and do I have to be at one?: Historically, Medicare required patients to be at an approved originating site — a medical facility such as a hospital, physician's office, or community mental health center — to receive telehealth. For behavioral health services, patients can now receive care from their home. For other services, home-as-originating-site is subject to the date extensions Congress authorized, and patients should verify current rules with their Medicare plan or provider.
What services does Medicare cover via telehealth?: CMS publishes an annual list of covered telehealth services. It includes office and outpatient visits at various complexity levels, consultations, psychotherapy and behavioral health services, substance use disorder treatment, diabetes management, and a growing number of chronic care services. The list changes each year through the CMS final rule.
Can I use audio-only (phone) visits with Medicare?: For behavioral health and mental health services, yes — Medicare permanently allows audio-only visits when the patient cannot or does not want to use video technology. For most other services, two-way audio-video is required. Audio-only visits for non-behavioral-health services may be temporarily authorized through congressional extensions.
Does Medicare Advantage cover telehealth differently?: Medicare Advantage plans may cover telehealth more broadly than Original Medicare, including services not on the CMS-approved telehealth list. Check your specific plan's evidence of coverage to understand what is covered, at what cost-sharing, and whether there are preferred telehealth networks.
What do I pay for a Medicare telehealth visit?: Cost-sharing for telehealth visits generally mirrors what you would pay for an in-person visit. A Medicare-covered telehealth office visit has the same Part B coinsurance (typically 20 percent after the deductible) as a comparable in-person visit. Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans may reduce this cost-sharing.
Can any provider offer me Medicare telehealth?: The provider must be enrolled in Medicare and must be licensed in the state where you are physically located during the visit. Providers who are enrolled in Medicare but not yet accepting Medicare patients (i.e., opted out) cannot bill for Medicare telehealth services.

Sources

Last reviewed: September 2026

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