U.S. to require private health insurance companies cover at-home COVID-19 tests

(Reuters) – WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
According to administration officials, new steps to battle the pandemic that President Joe Biden will propose on Thursday will require private health insurance companies to reimburse patients for the cost of over-the-counter at-home COVID-19 tests.

A senior administration official told reporters ahead of Biden’s statement that the reimbursement regulation will assist some 150 million Americans who have private health insurance.

According to the White House, government agencies such as the Health and Human Services Department, Labor Department, and Treasury Department will give recommendations on the subject by January 15.

According to the source, the law would not apply retrospectively and will not apply to anyone who are covered by public health insurance programs.
To help individuals who do not have private insurance or no insurance at all, the administration aims to give 50 million tests to rural clinics and testing locations.

On Thursday, Biden will visit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lay out his administration’s plan to combat the pandemic this winter by stepping up efforts to persuade Americans to receive COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, including initiatives to increase availability at pharmacies.

The country and the world are facing new threats from the COVID-19 Omicron strain, prompting the attempts to expand testing.
Fears of the variation have roiled financial markets, casting uncertainty on the speed with which the global economy would recover as the pandemic continues.

COVID-19 has killed over 775,000 individuals in the United States alone, with vaccine hesitancy among a huge portion of the public defeating Biden’s efforts to stop the virus’s spread.

Travel is mentioned in the White House’s winter plan.

Despite legal obstacles in his efforts to compel employers to do so, Biden will encourage corporations to require staff to get vaccinated or tested on a regular basis.

“The president will urge businesses to move quickly to require their employees to get vaccinated or tested on a weekly basis.
“Given the Omicron variation, this is especially critical,” the White House said in a statement.

A federal appeals court temporarily suspended Biden’s workplace vaccine-or-testing demand for companies with more over 100 employees in early November.

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