Washington Post: Lack of Medicare Coverage for at-home Coronavirus Tests Sparks Outcry (January 28, 2022)
When the Biden administration began requiring insurers to pay for at-home coronavirus tests, it left out a group especially vulnerable to the virus. Medicare, the federal insurance system with 64 million older or disabled Americans, was not included in the order, and the absence has triggered a fusillade of complaints.
They have certain options. If a patient has a doctor’s order, the program pays for at-home tests or PCR tests, in which a lab determines the results. And CMS sent a mass email to everyone on Medicare encouraging them to go to a federal website, CovidTests.gov, to order up to four free tests per household, to be shipped by the U.S. Postal Service, as the White House announced last month. Medicare beneficiaries also may pick up free tests from about 20,000 community health centers and rural clinics to which the federal government has distributed rapid-testing kits.
