Free Covid Home Tests - Now paid by Insurance

[Keksie]

8 minutes ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

They "work" for my grandchildren's school.

That is good.  I was worried that they wouldn't be accepted for schools or work.  This should really help keep kids in school and people at work.

[dunedinmaiden]

On 1/15/2022 at 2:12 PM, BuckeyeMan said:

Is that for the proctored tested that are required to cruise?  I didn't figure it would work for those tests.  

Correct, the government tests won't work for pre-cruise because they aren't proctored.

[pcur]

On 1/18/2022 at 12:21 PM, Merion_Mom said:

 

They "work" for my grandchildren's school.

They will "work" for my sister's household where they have an unvaccinated 4 yo who brought home COVID from daycare a few weeks ago.

 

And, they will "work" for my 98 MIL who lives in assisted living with lots of staff and medical professionals coming and going.

[Keksie]

1 hour ago, pcur said:

They will "work" for my sister's household where they have an unvaccinated 4 yo who brought home COVID from daycare a few weeks ago.

 

And, they will "work" for my 98 MIL who lives in assisted living with lots of staff and medical professionals coming and going.

Since the 4 yo has had covid I would think he would not have to be tested again for at least awhile.

 

For the MIL are the staff and medical professionals testing before going into the facility every time.  I would think they would not just depend on the 8 tests per month at home.

[pcur]

2 hours ago, Keksie said:

Since the 4 yo has had covid I would think he would not have to be tested again for at least awhile.

 

For the MIL are the staff and medical professionals testing before going into the facility every time.  I would think they would not just depend on the 8 tests per month at home.

I wasn't being clear, sorry. 

 

I meant it works for the extended, multi-generational family that my 4 yo great-niece lives with to be able to test more often, since she's not vaccinated, and has already brought it home.

 

The staff where my MIL lives are not tested daily, so now it will be nice that everyone in the place can be tested 8 times per month, hopefully on some kind of synchronized schedule.

[OnTheJourney]

On 1/18/2022 at 3:18 PM, Keksie said:

I am not sure what they are good for though.  I don't think they are accepted for travel. 

Any at-home test not done via proctoring is not good for travel. So it's basically a peace-of-mind thing. Good idea to test after getting home from a cruise. 

[Keksie]

8 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

Any at-home test not done via proctoring is not good for travel. So it's basically a peace-of-mind thing. Good idea to test after getting home from a cruise. 

We won't be cruising for a lot of reasons so I don't think we need to order any.  We are retired and don't have kids so don't need them for going to work or school.  In the last 2 years we haven't had the need to take one either.  If we ever have any symptoms and need to prove we are positive for the antibody or pill treatment we would go to the health dept. testing site for that test.

[OnTheJourney]

58 minutes ago, Keksie said:

If we ever have any symptoms

It's still possible to have covid and be asymptomatic. Even with testing, there is about a 20% chance of false negatives. 

[RedIguana]

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

It's still possible to have covid and be asymptomatic. Even with testing, there is about a 20% chance of false negatives.

Just splitting hairs, but by definition to have covid-19 requires symptoms. The D in covid stands for Disease. Being exposed to the virus that causes Covid-19 and successfully neutralizing the virus before it causes any disease is not the same as having covid-19.

[Keksie]

1 hour ago, OnTheJourney said:

It's still possible to have covid and be asymptomatic. Even with testing, there is about a 20% chance of false negatives. 

It is true you could always be asymptomatic.  Which day would you need to test.  Yesterday when you felt fine, today when you feel fine, two weeks ago when you felt fine?  Everyday even though you feel fine?  Every hour to catch the exact time between a negative test and a positive test?  Multiple times in an hour to rule out false negatives?

[D4]

2 minutes ago, Keksie said:

It is true you could always be asymptomatic.  Which day would you need to test.  Yesterday when you felt fine, today when you feel fine, two weeks ago when you felt fine?  Everyday even though you feel fine?  Every hour to catch the exact time between a negative test and a positive test?  Multiple times in an hour to rule out false negatives?

Even before the home tests were free, I planned to buy them to test a couple days BEFORE we fly to our cruise.  If we test positive on the home test, we would go get an official test and then cancel our cruise and flights.

 

We have an early morning flight 2 days before the cruise.  We’ll bring emed proctored tests to use in our hotel.  

[LATTELOVE]

On 1/15/2022 at 1:56 PM, firefly333 said:

Great let's put the cost of more free test on private business. What a great idea. Insurers have already come bac, and said this may cause your premiums to go up. .. nothing is free. Someone has to pay. 

 

 

Oh ,yes

for sure, thank you!

[pcur]

On 1/18/2022 at 12:14 PM, livingonthebeach said:

 

Thanks so much for this information.  I just ordered 4 free tests.  I think they're good to have just in case.  

Agree.  Plus, I don't have to use the BinaxNOW test kits unnecessarily, even though I ordered enough for my current travel plans for the year.  The free ones will be what I'll use after I get home, so I won't be a social outcast with my friends and family.................... 

 

I had a friend today who told me to have a great time on my cruise, and to not come near her for 5 days after I get home.  😁

 

(She has a family member that is susceptible, and has to be very careful.)

Edited January 21, 2022 by pcur

[FrostyJoe]

On 1/15/2022 at 2:16 PM, D4 said:

I have read that insurance companies will reimburse up to $12 per test.  So I believe we can order the proctored tests and get reimbursed $12 per test.

 

I think this is a big misconception that many may have (thank you media!!!).   $12 max reimbursement ONLY comes into play if and only if your commercial non-Medicare health plan makes an at home otc covid test pharmacy/retail "network"  and/or allow you to direct order from the insurance companies' (or network at home otc test pharmacy/retail network) website...but you still elected to go outside the network/direct ordering and paid more than $12/test.  Only then will the non-direct order or out of network will be limited to $12 reimbursement.  It was the governments way to incentivize insurance companies to make websites or have agreements with cvs/walgreens/walmart/etc for ease of consumers getting these tests without the consumers having to file a claim and without consumers dealing directly with insurance companies.

 

But I'm not aware of any insurance companies that created these websites yet that lets you order 8 tests/member/calendar month without having a need to file a claim with the insurance company.  My money is, their bean counters did the math and they figured less total number of people will go through the hassle of filing a claim and even if they pay out more than $12/test and they purposely not make it easy for you to order/file claim/get reimbursed (vs. just ordering and not dealing with claims)...since they'll end up saving money by not paying as as many claims vs. making it very easy and seamless for consumers to order their 8 monthly tests...

 

All that being said, it was fairly straight forward claims process and form for our insurance and few other insurance I checked.  For our insurance, we just needed to attach the receipt, and a single page claim form with name, member ID, sign and date.  I didn't even need CPT/HCPS/diagnostic codes, or even the $ paid on the claim form with our insurance...  Some other other insurance I checked required you to type out what you got, plus the $ paid on their single page form.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by FrostyJoe

[FrostyJoe]

I stand corrected.  UHC has preferred vendors already.  Figures..It's united healthcare...... https://www.uhc.com/health-and-wellness/health-topics/covid-19/coverage-and-resources/covid-19-at-home-testing-coverage/preferred-retailers

 

I like ihealth one far more than binnaxnow.  We recently did a side by side comparison at the same with binnaxnow and ihealth....binnaxnow was almost like a shadow on the sample/test line (weak positive) where as ihealth was solid dark color 

[billslowsky]

22 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

 

My money is, their bean counters did the math and they figured less total number of people will go through the hassle of filing a claim and even if they pay out more than $12/test and they purposely not make it easy for you to order/file claim/get reimbursed (vs. just ordering and not dealing with claims)...since they'll end up saving money by not paying as as many claims vs. making it very easy and seamless for consumers to order their 8 monthly tests...

 

 

Mine is going to cover it through the Rx benefit, which is adjudicated at point-of-sale.  No paperwork at all.

[FrostyJoe]

1 minute ago, billslowsky said:

Mine is going to cover it through the Rx benefit, which is adjudicated at point-of-sale.  No paperwork at all.

Yea I personally wouldn’t like that option…because of supply constraints. But I guess most people would probably prefer it vs dealing with claims. Claims form literally took me 1-2 minute to fill out. Printing the receipt and envelope and packing it took me longer..
 

Better yet, I do hope they make a website for direct ordering with adequate supply. But somehow I doubt that because of more $ they’ll have to spend as a result of more people ordering. 

 

I browsed through UHC website and for their plans with optum rx, they limit it to Walmart sams club rite aid and bartell retail locations. I can’t remember last time I saw tests in stock in any of those locations except I don’t know bartell since we don’t have those around us. 

[boxedlunch]

For everyone suggesting that premiums are going to rise because of a bunch of reimbursed, retail covid tests, please keep in mind that private insurers have had some of their most profitable quarters on record during the pandemic. You can easily google this +  the policy/legislative considerations that are linked to industry profitability. 

I personally don't see a strong connection to rising premiums, unless the at home covid test reimbursement policy continues long after the pandemic has cooled off and expensive procedures are back to being robustly pursued. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by boxedlunch

[billslowsky]

8 hours ago, FrostyJoe said:

I browsed through UHC website and for their plans with optum rx, they limit it to Walmart sams club rite aid and bartell retail locations. I can’t remember last time I saw tests in stock in any of those locations except I don’t know bartell since we don’t have those around us. 

I'm expecting Optum to use its market leverage , buy up huge supplies and distribute through their PBM, making a dime or two on each one, resulting in a massive total profit.

[FrostyJoe]

5 minutes ago, billslowsky said:

I'm expecting Optum to use its market leverage , buy up huge supplies and distribute through their PBM, making a dime or two on each one, resulting in a massive total profit.

Ha so true. Meanwhile they’ll be price gouging for the rest of us!

[OnTheJourney]

On 1/20/2022 at 10:25 AM, RedIguana said:

but by definition to have covid-19 requires symptoms.

Well, if you want to split hairs, "without symptoms" can refer to 2 groups of people - those who eventually do have symptoms, i.e. pre-symptomatic, and those who never go on to have symptoms (asymptomatic). The latter can spread covid to others. 

[FrostyJoe]

20 minutes ago, OnTheJourney said:

Well, if you want to split hairs, "without symptoms" can refer to 2 groups of people - those who eventually do have symptoms, i.e. pre-symptomatic, and those who never go on to have symptoms (asymptomatic). The latter can spread covid to others. 

Ha...for purposes of cruising, if you're testing positive even with no symptoms ever.....see you later (hopefully) and good luck! 😛

Edited January 21, 2022 by FrostyJoe

[OnTheJourney]

3 minutes ago, FrostyJoe said:

good luck!

Yeah. Those two words pretty well sums up the entire situation for all of us. Luck of the draw no matter where you go when you get right down to it. We have great feedback and advice from our in-laws who just came back from 11 days on the Anthem. Their sailing was at 40% capacity and lost 2 ports due to covid issues. Based on their input plus other stuff I'm reading around these boards, we'll make a decision to go or not. Right now I'm more attracted to trips that don't require any sort of testing and/or possible quarantine, but we have several upcoming cruises booked so will probably go. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by OnTheJourney

[PugM0m]

On 1/15/2022 at 2:36 PM, livingonthebeach said:

Thanks for checking.  Not on Medicare yet but will be soon. Wonder if any the supplemental plans pay.

I work in Medical Billing, If Medicare does not allow something, most of your private pay supplemental policies will not cover it either. However, if you have a Group Health plan provided by the employer you retired from, as a 2ndry, they may cover charges that Medicare does not, or they may not.  

[billslowsky]

On 1/15/2022 at 3:36 PM, livingonthebeach said:

Thanks for checking.  Not on Medicare yet but will be soon. Wonder if any the supplemental plans pay.

More likely to be covered as part of the Rx coverage, assuming you have that.  It can be added to the formulary.