I previously wrote about COVID-19 At-home Tests and that insurance companies and group health plans must provide full reimbursement for up to 8 over-the-counter at-home tests per individual per month. In follow-up to this announcement, the Kaiser Family Foundation published a brief study of the methods that private insurers are covering at-home rapid COVID tests. They reviewed publicly available rapid at-home COVID tests coverage and reimbursement policies for the 13 private insurers with at least 1 million fully-insured members across their U.S. subsidiaries between January 18, 2022 and January 20, 2022, and this is what they found:
In summary, 6 of 13 insurers have a direct coverage option, meaning that enrollees can buy rapid at-home tests without paying anything up front or navigating a complicated reimbursement process if the test is obtained through a preferred network of pharmacies or retailers, or through a mail order option.
The other 7 insurers do not have direct coverage but have some kind of reimbursement policy. 4 of those 7 insurers require receipts and a form be mailed in, with one of those 4 offering a fax option, but email and online submissions were not viable options. It is interesting that with all the technology we have available today, 4 of 7 insurers offer reimbursement of COVID tests only via mail or fax. In my opinion, mail and fax are harder to use than online options. I wonder if the new coverage policies will influence their migration to email or online reimbursement processes.
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