Bipartisan Push to Permanently Expand At-Home Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab
Where Things Stand
Legislation to permanently authorize virtual cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation for Medicare beneficiaries remains stalled in House and Senate committees. Without final passage, patients in rural areas continue to face travel barriers for recovery services that currently rely on temporary pandemic-era flexibilities. Additionally, proposals to allow non-physician clinicians to prescribe these programs await further legislative action.
The Facts
How We Got Here
Who This Affects
Helps
This bill would permanently allow Medicare to cover cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation services delivered in patients' homes via telehealth. During COVID-19, temporary waivers let people do heart and lung rehab at home with video supervision, but those rules were set to expire. Making this permanent means Medicare beneficiaries — especially those with heart disease, heart failure, or chronic lung conditions — could complete their rehab programs without traveling to a hospital or clinic. Studies show that only about 25% of eligible patients complete traditional in-person cardiac rehab, often due to transportation barriers, so this could meaningfully improve completion rates.
People with chronic heart and lung conditions are the direct beneficiaries of this bill. Cardiac rehab is prescribed after heart attacks, heart surgery, or heart failure, while pulmonary rehab helps people with conditions like COPD. Many of these patients are elderly or physically limited, making regular trips to a clinic difficult. By allowing supervised rehab from home via video, these patients would have an easier time completing their full course of treatment, which is known to reduce the risk of future cardiac events and improve quality of life for lung disease patients.
People with physical disabilities who also need heart or lung rehabilitation face especially high barriers getting to in-person appointments. This bill would let them receive supervised rehab at home through video calls, removing the transportation and mobility challenges that often prevent them from completing their prescribed rehab programs. This is a meaningful quality-of-life improvement for a group that already faces significant obstacles accessing healthcare.
Policies
S. 717 and H.R. 6894 are companion bills, meaning they are identical versions introduced in the Senate and House to allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe rehab. S. 248 is a separate but related bill that specifically focuses on making virtual video-based rehab a permanent option. All four policies work together to expand how and where Medicare patients can receive cardiac and pulmonary care.
Congress targets faster Medicare access to cardiac and pulmonary rehab by letting more clinicians prescribe it
Congress Bill Would Let More Clinicians Refer Medicare Patients to Heart and Lung Rehab Programs
Bipartisan Bill Aims to Make At-Home Heart and Lung Rehab Permanent for Medicare Patients
Congress Moves to Make Medicare Home Video Rehab for Heart and Lung Patients Permanent
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