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.”

© 2024 MMIT
Lauren Flynn Kelly

Lauren Flynn Kelly Managing Editor, Radar on Medicare Advantage

Lauren has been covering health business issues, including drug benefits and specialty pharmacy, for more than a decade. She served as editor of Drug Benefit News (the predecessor to Radar on Drug Benefits) from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2011 to 2016, and now manages Radar on Medicare Advantage. Lauren graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in English.

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