The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said on Thursday that Americans enrolled in the US government’s Medicare program can get up to eight over-the-counter Covid-19 tests a month for free starting in early spring.
It’s the latest addition to the previous efforts of the federal government to expand access to at-home Covid-19 testing and to remove cost barriers.
A senior CMS official noted last month that they had been working since December to find a workaround so Medicare would cover rapid tests following the scrutiny the Biden administration came under after it rolled out Covid test reimbursements for private insurance holders without offering similar coverage for some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations to Covid-19: people with Medicare.
The agency was initially opposing the plan but has now allowed people with Medicare or Medicare Advantage to pick up the tests for free and has agreed to directly pay certain pharmacies and other participating entities to allow that although the details on how the reimbursement mechanism will work remain unclear.
The CMS stressed it has identified a pathway to expand Medicare beneficiaries’ access to free over-the-counter testing despite the number of issues that have made it difficult to cover and pay for over-the-counter Covid-19 tests.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre informed last Friday that approximately 60 million households have placed orders through the website the Biden administration rolled out last month, allowing each US household to order four at-home Covid-19 tests that the US Postal Service will deliver for free.
Public health experts emphasize that the investments in the at-home-testing supply chain would help the US to be more resilient if cases rebound despite the current rapid decline in the number of daily national Covid-19 infections.
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