The Acute Hospital Care at Home program has received another extension.

On Saturday, President Biden signed a spending bill that extended the hospital-at-home waiver program to March 31, 2025. The bill also includes an extension for telehealth flexibilities.

“While the hospital at home community was hoping for a 5-year extension to be passed, the extension of the Acute Hospital at Home waiver through the end of March helps patients and their caregivers who need hospital at home care, and helps programs avoid having to shut down programs that require substantial effort to develop and implement,” Dr. Bruce Leff, a professor of medicine and director of the center for transformative geriatric research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told Home Health Care News in an email.

Originally, the hospital-at-home waiver was set to expire at the end of 2024.

The news comes after year-long efforts to expand the waiver. In March, hospital-at-home stakeholders penned a letter to Sens. Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.). The letter pushed for the waiver to be extended for at least five years.

In May, Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) introduced a bill that would extend the waiver for five more years.

Another bill also aimed to push the waiver’s deadline to Dec. 31, 2029.

Many supporters of the hospital-at-home model believe that the March 2025 deadline is a step in the right direction, while also believing that more long-term measures should be put in place.

“We are relieved to have made the final bill,” Moving Health Home Founder Krista Drobac told HHCN in an email. “It demonstrates a recognition of the value and innovation of this program. We are anxious to see a 5-year extension in March.”

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and ATA Action commended the extensions, too, while also noting that it wasn’t the complete outcome the organization wanted.

“While this isn’t the outcome we had fully hoped for, the ATA and ATA Action are appreciative of this legislation as an important step to avoid disruptions in critical areas of telehealth access,” Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of public policy at the ATA and executive director of ATA Action, said in a press statement. “Looking ahead, we will immediately begin working to ensure Congress makes Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program permanent – or secures a much longer extension than 90 days. Simultaneously, we will advocate vigorously to reinstate the vital provisions that were left out of this package.”