News Briefs: CMS Says It Found a Way to Cover Medicare Beneficiaries’ At-Home COVID Tests
CMS on Feb. 3 said it is working on an initiative to enable Medicare coverage of over-the-counter (OTC) COVID tests in early spring. The administration in January issued guidance requiring group and individual health plans to reimburse members for up to eight at-home COVID tests per month without cost sharing. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and 18 other senators on Jan. 24 wrote to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure urging them to extend the same access to Medicare enrollees. And in a bipartisan letter issued Jan. 20, House representatives made a similar request. Despite several issues that complicated CMS’s efforts to cover the tests, the agency said it has “identified a pathway that will expand access to free over-the-counter testing for Medicare beneficiaries.”
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