The end of the Covid health emergency in the US also means the government will soon stop offering free tests to households through the mail.
According to a, the popular offer should be available by the end of May press release this week from the Biden administration outlining the transition from Covid measures. Since the Online portal launched as of January 2022, the program has distributed more than 750 million rapid antigen tests to more than two-thirds of American homes.
The public health emergency officially ends on Thursday. According to the press release, the government has stockpiled more than 600 million tests to meet demand should there be a future surge in Covid cases.
Households are eligible for four additional tests if the last order to a specific residential address was made before December 15, 2022. The Department of Health and Human Services urged previous participants in the program to do so check over if their existing Covid test expiration dates were extended before being thrown away.
The handling of the health emergency also affects Medicare beneficiaries, who cannot get free testing unless ordered by a healthcare provider. Medicaid, meanwhile, will continue to cover home and PCR testing through September 2024. Private insurance providers will set their own guidelines, although the Department of Health and Human Services has encouraged insurers and employer health plan sponsors to continue to cover the testing without requiring beneficiaries to pay the cost out-of-pocket.
Free testing isn’t the only thing that will go away when the US ends its emergency response. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will do so stop counting Infection, transmission and case numbers at community level in his Covid data tracker because laboratories are not required to provide the figures.
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