New Jersey’s telehealth payment parity requirement — extended twice since the pandemic — reached its scheduled expiration on July 1, 2026. If your practice bills a meaningful volume of telehealth visits to New Jersey patients, this is worth understanding immediately, not at your next contract renewal.
NJ Telehealth Parity Expired July 1, 2026
P.L.2024, c.105 payment parity for telehealth vs. in-person care has expired. Reimbursement now depends on individual payer policy unless the Legislature acts.
What the Law Required Until July 1, 2026
Under P.L.2024, c.105, health benefit plans in New Jersey — including commercial carriers, the State Health Benefits Program, the School Employees’ Health Benefits Program, and NJ FamilyCare — were required to reimburse telemedicine and telehealth services at the same rate as equivalent in-person services, as long as the service was otherwise covered when delivered in person. Traditional Medicare was excluded from this requirement, as it falls under separate federal telehealth payment rules.
The parity requirement did not apply to physical health services delivered via real-time audio-only communication — but behavioral health services retained parity even when delivered audio-only, a distinction that continues to matter regardless of what happens with the broader law.
What Happens Now That It’s Expired
As of this writing, whether payers continue reimbursing telehealth at parity with in-person visits depends on individual payer policy, not state mandate, unless the New Jersey Legislature passes a new extension. This is worth watching closely — New Jersey has extended this law twice before (from December 2023, then again from December 2024), so a further extension is plausible but not guaranteed.
What to do while this is unresolved:
- Check directly with your top payers whether they intend to continue telehealth payment parity voluntarily, independent of the state mandate
- Model your telehealth revenue under a scenario where reimbursement drops to a lower non-parity rate, so you aren’t caught off guard by a rate change mid-quarter
- Behavioral health telehealth billing is not directly affected by this specific expiration in the same way — audio-only parity protections for behavioral health exist under a separate statutory provision
- Watch NJ Legislature activity for any extension bill — prior extensions have sometimes been signed close to the deadline, so a resolution could still be forthcoming
Why This Is Bigger for Some Practices Than Others
Practices with high telehealth utilization — particularly primary care, psychiatry, and chronic disease management — have the most direct financial exposure here. If your practice built its telehealth program assuming parity reimbursement was permanent, this is the moment to confirm that assumption against your actual payer contracts rather than the expired state requirement.
This update connects directly to our full New Jersey Medical Billing Guide for 2026 — read the complete guide for the NJ FamilyCare MCO landscape, OBBBA transition details, and commercial prior authorization law every NJ provider needs to know this year.
At ClaimsXperts, we help New Jersey practices model telehealth revenue exposure and confirm payer-specific reimbursement policy during exactly this kind of regulatory transition.
Contact us today at https://www.rcmmasters.com/#contactus to review your practice’s telehealth billing strategy.
ClaimsXperts is a Revenue Cycle Management company based in Frisco, TX, serving medical practices across the United States.
