Insurers must pay for at-home COVID-19 testing, White House says

As the spectrum of COVID-19 variants continues to shift, so does the White House strategy to counter them. President Biden on Thursday laid out his plans to fight the Omicron and Delta COVID-19 variants over the winter, including free and insurer-funded at-home testing and new requirements for international travelers.

The U.S. government will require private health insurance companies to reimburse their 150 million customers for 100% of the cost of over-the-counter, at-home COVID-19 tests, administration officials said, and make millions more tests available free through rural clinics and health centers for the uninsured.

The administration is urging all eligible Americans to get vaccines and boosters to fight Omicron. About 60% of the total U.S. population, or 196 million people, are fully vaccinated. The United States also plans to require inbound international passengers to be tested for COVID-19 within one day of departure, regardless of vaccination status. Mask requirements on airplanes, trains and public transportation vehicles will be extended until March 18.

Government agencies, including the Health and Human Services Department, Labor Department and Treasury Department, will issue guidance on the issue by Jan. 15. The rule will not apply retroactively and does not cover people on public health insurance plans, an official said. The administration plans to distribute 50 million tests to rural clinics and testing sites to help cover those who do not have private insurance and those who do not have insurance at all.

More than 786,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States, including 37,000 in November. Biden in September introduced vaccine mandates requiring large companies, federal workers and contractors, and some medical personnel to be vaccinated. Although courts recently blocked two mandates, Biden will press companies to require employees to be vaccinated or tested regularly despite legal setbacks.

“The president will call on businesses to move forward expeditiously with requiring their workers to get vaccinated or tested weekly,” the White House said in a statement. “This is especially important given the Omicron variant.”

Not everyone is so keen on the announcement. America’s Health Insurance Plans spokesperson Kristine Grow expressed the group’s concern over ensuring “that price gouging does not spread to OTC tests, that consumers are protected from higher premiums, and that clear rules and guidance allow these efforts to be implemented effectively.”

Indeed, the actual cost of testing to health insurance plans will be a major point of concern, whether costs are artificially inflated or driven higher by demand that outpaces supply.

“We’ve got a finite supply, and we just created a massive demand, and if the prices start to skyrocket and they’re being forced to pay for it, it could cause significant economic hardship,” noted Scott Conard, chair of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalition.