U.S. to require private health insurance companies cover at-home
COVID-19 tests
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[December 02, 2021]
By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government
will require private health insurance companies to reimburse customers
for the cost of over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests under new
measures to combat the pandemic that President Joe Biden will unveil on
Thursday, administration officials said.
The rule on reimbursement will benefit some 150 million Americans who
have private health insurance, a senior administration official told
reporters ahead of Biden's announcement.
Government agencies including the Health and Human Services Department,
Labor Department and Treasury Department will issue guidance on the
issue by January 15, the White House said.
The rule will not apply retroactively and does not cover people on
public health insurance plans, the 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.
Biden plans to visit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday
and outline his administration's strategy to fight the pandemic over the
winter by bolstering efforts to encourage Americans to get COVID-19
vaccines and boosters, including steps to expand availability at
pharmacies.
The efforts to expand testing come as the country and the world face new
threats from the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Fears about the variant have
pounded financial markets and created doubts about the speed of the
global economic recovery as the pandemic rages on.
More than 775,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States
alone, with vaccine hesitancy among a large chunk of the U.S. population
thwarting Biden's attempts to halt the virus's spread.
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A new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at-home test kit made by Lucira
Health, newly approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
emergency use authorization, sits on a table at a Sutter Health lab
in San Carlos, California, U.S. November 18, 2020. REUTERS/Nathan
Frandino
The White House's winter plan also touches on travel.
By early next week the United States will require inbound
international travelers 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 to March 18. [ID:nL1N2SM3FR
Biden also will press companies to require employees to be
vaccinated or tested regularly despite legal setbacks to his efforts
to force employers to do so.
"The president will call on businesses to move forward expeditiously
with requiring their workers to get vaccinated or tested weekly.
This is especially important given the Omicron variant," the White
House said in a statement.
In early November a federal appeals court temporarily blocked
Biden's workplace vaccine-or-testing mandate for businesses with at
least 100 employees.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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