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Medicare Update on COVID




Medicare will cover the lab tests for COVID-19 and you will pay no out-of-pocket costs. Medicare will also cover all medically necessary hospitalizations. This will include, if you're diagnosed with COVID-19 and might otherwise have been discharged from the hospital after an inpatient stay, but instead, you need to stay in the hospital under quarantine. 

 If a vaccine for COVID becomes available, it will be covered by all Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (Part D). If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, you have access to these Medicare covers related needs. Medicare will also allow these plans to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 lab tests.

Medicare is also responsible for developing and enforcing the essential health and safety requirements that health care providers must meet on a daily basis in response to coronavirus. This includes;

  • Taking aggressive actions and exercising regulatory flexibilities to help healthcare providers and Medicare health plans.
  • To address the urgent need to increase capacity to care for patients, hospitals can now provide hospital services in other healthcare facilities and sites that aren’t currently considered part of a healthcare facility. This includes off-site screenings.
  • Waiving certain requirements for skilled nursing facility care.
  • Establishing new codes to allow providers to correctly bill for services related to diagnosis and treatment of the illness.
  • Instructing our national network of State Survey Agencies and Accrediting Organizations to focus all their efforts on infection prevention and other cases of abuse and neglect in nursing homes and hospitals.
  • Instructing nursing homes and hospitals to review their infection control procedures, which they're required to maintain at all times.
  • Issuing important guidance answering questions that nursing homes may have with respect for addressing cases of COVID-19.

Telehealth & related services

Medicare has temporarily expanded its coverage of telehealth
services to respond to the current Public Health Emergency. These services expand the current telehealth covered services, to help you have access from more places, with a wider range of communication tools, including smartphones, to interact with a range of providers, such as doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social worker. You will be able to receive a specific set of services through telehealth including evaluation and management visits, mental health counseling and preventive health screenings without a copayment if you have Original Medicare. This will help ensure you are able to visit with your doctor from your home, without having to go to a doctor’s office or hospital, which puts you and others at risk of exposure to COVID-19.








Always remember:
Scammers may use the coronavirus national emergency to take advantage of people while they’re distracted. As always, you must guard your Medicare card like a credit card. From time to time check Medicare claims summary forms for errors, and if someone calls asking for your Medicare Number, immediately HUNG UP!



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