Telehealth continues to grow in importance to many of today’s practices. It facilitates high-quality care from a distance. With more patients ready and willing to use these services, it’s critical that healthcare practices be ready for changes in the industry, including from a billing point of view.
Staying informed ensures telehealth compliance. Your practice maintains responsibility for understanding and following all Telehealth compliance 2026 updates and changes. Here’s an update on what you can expect for this year and how Benchmark Solutions can help.
Why Telehealth Compliance Matters in 2026
In 2024, 25% of Medicare fee-for-service users had a telehealth service. That’s expected to grow year after year. While data for 2025 is not yet available, early reports indicate that 54% of Americans reported using the service in the previous year, with a significant number of them being Medicare patients.
This is a service your healthcare practice is likely to continue to depend on moving forward. Compliance becomes essential.
Numerous benefits come from telehealth compliance. That includes on-time payments and patient satisfaction. By contrast, mistakes can be costly in several ways:
- HIPAA and patient data security errors can create breaches that expose sensitive information of some of the most at-risk
- Legal and financial risk to your practice, including reputational harm from oversights and errors
- Payer reimbursement delays that impact healthcare practice cash flow
To avoid these risks, it’s critical that you understand telehealth and telemedicine compliance requirements.
Key CMS Updates for 2026
You can expect numerous updates to impact your practice this year. Depending on the type of services you offer, you may need to review policies and procedures related to the following.
Audio-Only Telehealth Rules
One significant change takes place on January 31st, when audio-only will be allowed for mental health in the home in situations where the provider can do video, but the patient does not want or cannot do video.
For most other services, patients will need to be located in a rural area and use a facility that is also in a rural area as the originating site to continue to use audio-only telehealth services. Some exceptions may apply.
Temporary Flexibilities Will End
To roll out telemedicine, Medicare and the federal government took numerous steps to improve awareness and adoption. Some of those flexibilities initially put into place will become permanent, while others will remain only for a short time. Unless Congress acts prior to the end of January, the following applies through January 30th, 2026, only:
- Patients can receive telehealth services for non-behavioral and mental health care services in their home.
- There are no geographic restrictions for the originating site for Medicare non-behavioral and mental health services.
- All eligible Medicare providers can provide telehealth services
- Federal Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health Clinics can serve as Medicare distant site providers for non-behavioral health and mental health services.
- An in-person visit within six months of initial telehealth service and then annually after will not be required
However, after January 30, these changes take effect, which can impact how you serve your patients.
