By Tami Luhby, CNN
As Congress strives to provide more federal investment to fight COVID-19, Americans are beginning to feel the consequences.
The federal program that reimburses pharmacies, clinics, doctors, hospitals and other providers to monitor and treat other people who do not have COVID-19 insurance prevented accepting new programs last week due to inadequate funding. And it will prevent new claims for vaccination of the uninsured from being accepted on April 5.
The end of this program, which was introduced at the beginning of the pandemic, makes it harder for the country’s 31 million uninsured citizens to cope with covid-19. While access to loose facilities continues, many uninsured Americans will now have to pay cash to get tested for the coronavirus or get a remedy if they are sick.
Vaccines deserve to be provided at no cost since the federal government has purchased all vaccines in advance, said Jennifer Tolbert, associate director of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Medicaid and Uninsured Program. Providers were able to claim reimbursement for the handling of the vaccine.
Termination of the federal program is expected to more than the uninsured, especially if the United States reports a further increase in Covid-19.
“Some patients will end up not receiving those vaccines, life-saving remedies or being able to identify if they have been exposed to any kind, which will harm those other vulnerable people and the defense and coverage of our country against Covid-19. Audrey. Richardson, a policy analyst at Families USA, a client fitness advocacy group.
Starting with its request for $22. 5 billion in additional investments for Covid-19 last month, the White House requested $1. 5 billion to complete the program for the uninsured.
However, the $15. 6 billing package that the House included on the federal spending bill last month, in particular, came with more investment for the uninsured. On Thursday, lawmakers reached a bipartisan agreement “in principle” for an even narrower $10,19 aid proposal, according to Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney.
Several industry teams representing suppliers are pushing lawmakers to revive the effort, especially as instances of the BA. 2 subvariant of the Omicron variant are expanding in Europe and Asia.
“To be sure, depleting that budget will threaten to conduct testing for the most vulnerable Americans at a critical time in our nation’s reaction effort,” wrote Thomas Sparkman, senior vice president of government affairs and policy at the American Association of Clinical Laboratories. a letter to congressional leaders last month.
The White House has also signaled other federal COVID-19 response efforts that will suffer without further money, adding the acquisition of more vaccines, monoclonal antibody treatments and preventive treatments for immunocompromised people. The government will also struggle to assess capacity.
In addition, the country’s ability to identify emerging variants and assist in global vaccination and remedy efforts will be reduced, according to the Biden administration.
Congress created and funded the Covid-19 uninsured program as a component of several coronavirus relief systems it approved in 2020. The effort also builds on cash allocated in the American Rescue Plan Act, which became law in March 2021.
The goal is to make sure that other people without a health policy can receive care, which would also help prevent the spread of the virus.
In early March, more than 50,000 claimants were reimbursed for a total of just under $19 billion through the program, according to Martin Kramer, a spokesman for the Federal Health and Resources Administration, which manages the uninsured fund. Since the beginning of 2022, the firm receives about 1 million claims per day and will pay about $500 million per week.
About 61 of the rebates were for testing, about 31 for treatment and fewer than nine for vaccine administration, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Millions of Americans have benefited from the program, Kramer said, noting that it has played a pivotal role in the pandemic.
“The prices of those facilities can actually go up for someone without insurance, depending on the treatment and care they need,” he said. burdens on the providers of the safety net. “
Some have already announced that the uninsured will have to pay for Covid-19 testing now.
Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation’s largest advertising labs, began charging $70 to $125 to uninsured Americans who apply for QuestDirect checks, depending on the type, according to Kim Gorode, a spokeswoman for the company. check Quest Diagnostics will pay $100.
The company earned about $488 million in reimbursements for the uninsured fund, according to the CDC database and shown through Quest.
Meanwhile, Curative, a health care startup, stopped screening other uninsured people in some states, adding Florida and Texas, where the uninsured make up a significant portion of its patients and where it has no other reimbursement terms in place. It provides testing in 34 states.
Curative has earned about $587 million in rebates, according to the CDC. When asked about the figure, the company said there wasn’t enough information on the agency’s online page to verify its accuracy.
For Embry Health, the termination of the reimbursement program may result in the closure of the vast majority of the company’s three hundred Covid-19 testing sites in seven states, CEO Raymond Embry said. It began postponing operations at 60 sites in Arizona starting in April. 1.
About 50% of its consumers are uninsured.
The company, which earned about $54 million in rebates from the federal program, is now testing a total of about 2,200 people per day, Embry said. That’s below a height of 46,000 at the peak of omicron earlier this year.
On Friday, the company continued to provide free trials to people without insurance, though the federal program stopped accepting new programs on March 22, Embry said. But it will do so indefinitely.
He fears it will be more complicated for uninsured people to get tested, just as Omicron’s highly contagious BA. 2 subvariant has the dominant strain in the United States.
“Patients want to feel confident when they get tested, and the right value for them is free. It has to be free,” Embry said.
Although it is harder to find, you can still get loose tests for people without insurance.
CVS said other people without a policy can continue to get COVID-19 tests or vaccines free of charge at their pharmacies.
The network earned $38 million for testing and $475 million for vaccines from the federal program, according to the CDC. CVS referred questions about the accuracy of the knowledge to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which did not respond to a request for confirmation.
Many states, municipalities and fitness centers in the network still offer loose tests.
For example, the New York City Department of Health continues to provide loose tests and vaccines to the uninsured, as well as those with coverage, at cell sites, local clinics, municipal hospitals, and elsewhere. The effort is funded through cash from various public sources, adding the municipal, state and federal governments.
Another for the uninsured is to order up to two sets of four loose Covid-19 tests at home from the federal government in Covidtests. gov.
However, advocates and health care providers fear that other uninsured people will be more reluctant to seek out medical facilities now that the reimbursement program is about to end.
“In fact, we wouldn’t need those who don’t have a policy right now to see this data about this program disappear and think they wouldn’t have access to care,” said Molly Smith, vice president of the policy organization for the American Hospital Association.
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