S. 248 — Sustainable Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Services in the Home Act

This section codifies Medicare coverage flexibilities for cardiac rehabilitation programs (including intensive cardiac rehabilitation programs), and pulmonary rehabilitation programs—services that provide structured exercise, education, and risk factor modification for beneficiaries recovering from cardiovascular events or with chronic respiratory failure—furnished via telehealth in a beneficiary's home (including as a provider-based hospital outpatient department location) with virtual physician supervision through audio-visual real-time communications technology, effective for items and services on or after January 1, 2026. It amends SSA §1861(eee)(2) to explicitly authorize such home-based telehealth delivery and virtual supervision. It further amends SSA §1834(m) to (1) authorize payments to hospitals for telehealth services; (2) include hospitals as eligible originating sites; and (3) add a new paragraph (10) waiving geographic restrictions for telehealth delivery of these rehabilitation programs at home originating sites described in §1834(m)(4)(C)(ii)(V) or (X). It directs the Secretary of HHS, not later than 30 days after enactment, to establish standards (effective January 1, 2026) designating a beneficiary's home as a provider-based hospital location consistent with COVID-19 Hospital Without Walls waivers and to specify these rehabilitation services as Medicare telehealth services under §1834(m)(4)(F). (Thus, the Secretary may implement these provisions via program instruction.)