New Rule Raises the Question: Who Will Pay for All Covid Tests?


Increasing cases of Covid and The spread of the delta variantA large wave of employers announced the same rule this week for unvaccinated workers: They will need to undergo regular surveillance tests. The new requirement raises a tough question: Who pays for these coronavirus tests?

Doctors typically charge around $50 to $100 for tests, so the costs of weekly tests can skyrocket. Federal law requires insurers to fully cover testing when ordered by a healthcare provider, but routine workplace testing is exempt from this provision.

“It really depends on the employer,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Health Insurance Reforms. “They may want employees to take the tab.”

Employers have so far taken a variety of approaches, from fully covering costs to paying full freight to unvaccinated workers.

White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news conference on Friday that the US government will pay for coronavirus testing of unvaccinated workers.

President Biden announced Charter On Thursday, that means a two-tier system for the nation’s four million federal employees. Those who do not get vaccinated will have to adhere to social distancing, wear masks and comply with official travel restrictions. Those who are vaccinated will not have such a requirement.

Those who are not vaccinated will also undergo regular coronavirus testing. Each federal agency will draw up a plan to test the unvaccinated workforce. The costs and procedures of each institution’s testing protocols will depend on the number of unvaccinated individuals they must follow.

“Agencies will implement this program themselves, so they will be responsible for how this progresses,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.

Employers taking a different approach include Rhodes College in Tennessee: Unvaccinated students, faculty, and staff will receive a salary $1,500 fee per semester To cover the costs associated with a weekly coronavirus testing program.

Rhodes, a small liberal arts college, estimates that three-quarters of its staff are vaccinated. It currently collects information on the vaccination rate among its 2,000 students and strongly encourages vaccination. But it awaits full Food and Drug Administration approval before mandating vaccines.

“It’s not a punishment,” said Meghan Harte Weyant, the university’s vice president for student life. “For students who choose to return to campus unvaccinated, they will have to cover their expenses. This is to ensure that students who are vaccinated do not have to bear this expense.”

Other employers are having workers chip in for the costs of coronavirus testing. MGM Resorts, which owns several hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, will charge co-pays of $15 for unvaccinated workers for testing at an on-site clinic, multiple news outlets reported last week. Employees will also have the option to be tested at an external provider.

MGM Resorts did not respond to a New York Times request for comment on the new policy.

These different approaches could provide a menu of options for workplaces that are still deciding who and how much to pay for coronavirus testing of unvaccinated workers.

New York and California started testing Requirements It’s for government employees who haven’t been vaccinated this week, but it also didn’t specify who will pay for the service. The press offices of both governorates did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.

Many states and cities still have free coronavirus testing sites that they launched earlier in the pandemic. Long Beach, California, announced this week that testing is required for unvaccinated city workers. Speaking to The Times about the new rule, the city said workers “will have the option to do their mandatory testing at the Long Beach Health Department for free” when the requirement goes into effect in mid-August.

But many Americans get tests at doctor’s offices and pharmacies that will often bill patients and their insurance for the service.

Federal law requires insurers to fully cover coronavirus testing ordered by healthcare providers; this means that the doctor cannot apply a deductible or additional payment to the service. Rules written by the Trump administration and continuing into the Biden administration excluded routine workplace testing from this requirement.

In practice, insurers often cover employer-mandated testing – it’s hard to tell from a doctor’s bill whether a business is ordering care – but they can start examining cases of patients suddenly making claims each week for the same service.

“Under federal law, if they start to see a significant number of people getting these tests done every week or twice a week, they will be within their jurisdiction to say that this looks like routine workplace testing and is not covered,” the professor said. Corlette of Georgetown.

This means unvaccinated workers who have to have their own coronavirus tests may have to pay their own wages. Some patients encounter surprise medical bills for coronavirus testscan range from a few dollars to over $1,000.

Some of these invoices were the result of an employer-mandated test. Last year, The Times asked the readers submitting their medical bills for coronavirus testing and treatment and investigating multiple surprise charges for a required test at work.

That includes Marta Bartan, who needed a coronavirus test to get back to a job as a hair colorist in Brooklyn last summer. as The Times reportedreceived a $1,394 bill from a hospital that operates a drive-through site.

“I’m so confused,” he said at the time. “You go to get a Covid test, hoping it’s free. What could they have charged me for $1400 for?”



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