News Briefs: Insurers Say COVID Vaccine Coverage Issues Are Fixed
Four health insurance industry trade groups, in a letter to HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra, said technical issues that led to reports of patients having to pay out-of-pocket for their updated COVID-19 vaccines “have been largely, if not completely, resolved.” The letter, penned by the Alliance of Community Health Plans, Association for Community Affiliated Plans, AHIP, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, stated that “health insurers are fully covering the new COVID-19 shots, as required, with no cost sharing when consumers access them from a network provider or receive them through an out-of-network provider when in-network options are unavailable.” In addition to publishing the letter, executives from AHIP, Elevance Health, Inc.’s Anthem, Cigna Healthcare, Humana Inc., and Aetna parent company CVS Health Corp. met with Becerra on Sept. 27 to assure Becerra that they worked quickly to resolve any coding errors that may have prevented vaccines from being fully covered, multiple news outlets reported.