After 44 days the federal government shutdown has finally ended. It was announced over the weekend that the Senate had come to a compromised agreement after 8 Democratic Senators defected from party leadership to support a funding package that would fund the government through January 2026. In exchange for voting for the package, Republican leaders agreed to hold a vote in December on the ACA tax credits. In addition, the funding package would fully fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), once known as food stamps, through next September, a major flashpoint in the shutdown, and it also reverses Trump’s attempted layoffs of federal workers during the shutdown through RIFs, or “reduction in force” notifications.

The House voted on Wednesday to pass the same package and President Trump quickly signed it. Included in the funding package was an extension of the COVID telehealth F2F flexibilities to January 30, 2026. Under the funding package, telehealth claims dating back to Oct. 1 would be paid retroactively. And claims that have been paid but at a lower rate due to the expiration of geographic adjustments might also be “reprocessed and corrected,” according to the American Telemedicine Association.

We will provide more updates on telehealth as they develop.