New house bill to extend COVID-era telehealth flexibilities

The House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday will consider a new bill that would extend telehealth flexibilities introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic for Medicare beneficiaries for another two years.
The legislation named the Preserving Telehealth, Hospital, and Ambulance Access Act was introduced by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), as telehealth flexibilities are set to expire at the end of the year if there is no congressional action.
The House Ways & Means bill also includes reforms to regulate pharma intermediaries known as pharmacy benefits managers (PBM), which have come under intense regulatory scrutiny in recent months over soaring drug costs.
Managed care organizations CVS Health (CVS), Cigna (CI), UnitedHealth (UNH), and Elevance Health (ELV) are among the leading PBM operators in the U.S. Telehealth stocks include Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC), American Well (NYSE:AMWL), and Talkspace (TALK).