{"id":5112,"date":"2025-11-12T03:17:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wrwofficial.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/many-medicare-patients-cant-get-telehealth-during-the-shutdown-shots\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T03:17:30","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:17:30","slug":"many-medicare-patients-cant-get-telehealth-during-the-shutdown-shots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrwofficial.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/many-medicare-patients-cant-get-telehealth-during-the-shutdown-shots\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Medicare patients can\u2019t get telehealth during the shutdown : Shots"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n <\/picture>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Telehealth \u2014 seeing a doctor or nurse via a videoconference on your phone or computer \u2014 got a boost during the pandemic. Telehealth payments for people on Medicare are on hold during the shutdown.
\n <\/p>\n

Fotograf\u00eda de eLuVe\/Moment RF\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/b>
\n hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Fotograf\u00eda de eLuVe\/Moment RF\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

A few weeks ago, when Vicki Stearn, 68, tried to schedule a virtual visit with her doctor, she was told Medicare \u2014 at least temporarily \u2014 stopped paying for telehealth appointments when the government shut down. So Stearn was offered a choice: Make an in-person appointment, or pay out of pocket for telehealth.<\/p>\n

“So I said, ‘OK, well, when can I get an in-person appointment?’ And it wouldn’t have been until December.”<\/p>\n

So Stearn, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland, paid \u2014 hoping that when the government reopens, she’ll be reimbursed. But Stearn, who serves on the patient advisory council for Johns Hopkins Medicine, says the loss of telehealth services complicates life for almost everyone \u2013 from the working person to Stearn’s own 90-year-old mother, who hates traveling to and from the doctor.<\/p>\n