The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said
Medicare will cover up to eight free tests per month, starting in early spring.
The tests will be handed out at participating pharmacies and other locations.
They’ll be available to people who have Medicare’s “Part B” outpatient benefit,
which about 9 in 10 enrollees sign up for.
Last month, the administration directed private insurers to
cover up to eight at-home tests a month free of charge to people on their
plans. Officials said at the time they were still trying to figure out what to
do about Medicare, which covers more than 60 million people, most of them age
65 or older and more vulnerable to severe illness from coronavirus infection.
Medicare benefits are governed by a host of arcane laws and
regulations, and officials said Thursday they were able to arrange for coverage
of over-the-counter COVID-19 tests by using the program’s legal authority to
conduct demonstration programs on innovative ways to deliver health care. This
is the first time Medicare has covered an over-the-counter test at no cost to
recipients.
People with Medicare Advantage, a private insurance option
that covers about 4 in 10 Medicare enrollees, will also have access to free
COVID-19 tests through their plans, officials said. Medicare Advantage plans
can already cover over-the-counter COVID-19 tests as a supplemental benefit.
AARP praised Medicare’s decision and said it will closely
follow the rollout. “The cost of paying for tests and the time needed to find
free testing options are barriers that could discourage Medicare beneficiaries
from getting tested, leading to greater social isolation and continued spread
of the virus,” Nancy LeaMond, a vice-president of the advocacy group for older
people, said in a statement.
The new policy focuses on so-called rapid tests, which
provide at-home results in about 15 minutes. Many families use the tests before
getting together for special occasions or when grandparents travel from out of
state to see grandkids they haven’t been able to play with for months due to
COVID-19 isolation. Some testmakers pitch older adults directly in their marketing.
Medicare also will continue to cover the more precise
lab-based PCR tests at no cost, but those must be ordered by a clinician or an
authorized health care professional.
Before Thursday’s announcement, Medicare enrollees did have
options for getting free at-home tests, and those will remain available while
the new policy is going into effect. Those options include requesting four free
tests for home delivery through covidtests.gov or picking free tests up from
community locations such as libraries or senior centers that distribute them.
At-home tests were in vexingly short supply at pharmacies as
the omicron wave gained momentum in December, and some consumers find that’s
still the case.
However, an all-out drive by the White House to provide 500
million free tests and greatly expand production capacity is starting to show
results, although they can vary by community and by pharmacy location. -AP
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