Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State tells insurers to cover virus tests
Officials work to provide clarity on COVID-19
“There’s a lot of information out there, but they’re often not summarized in a useful fashion.” Dr. Sultan Rahaman
Florida insurance regulators told health insurers on Friday that they should cover the cost of coronavirus testing, but there is confusion over who should be tested and where.
Earlier this week, federal health officials said that with a doctor’s prescription, anyone who wants can get tested for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. But in Florida, residents won’t be tested unless they meet certain criteria, according to the state health department.
“If patients start showing up to my office with the typical symptoms and may have had contact with someone else who’s got the infection, I really don’t know how to go about and get them tested or how available it is,” said Dr. Sultan Rahaman, who has a solo practice in Longwood.
“I wished that we would have a document with bullet points: Wash your hands. Clean your surfaces. If you have patients that need testing, here’s where you send them, etc. There’s a lot of information out there, but they’re often not summarized in a useful fashion,” he said.
The Florida Department of Health did not respond to several questions from the Orlando Sentinel.
Meanwhile, state insurance officials are pushing insurers to cover COVID-19 testing.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said that because the testing is considered an emergency medical service, it must be covered at the in-network level “regardless of which provider performs the service.”
“Consumers could be reluctant to seek testing or treatment due to other anticipated costs. Insurers are directed to consider all practicable options to reduce the barriers of costsharing for testing and treatment of COVID-19 during the public health emergency,” the agency said
So far, Cigna has said that it will waive all co-pays and cost-shares for members who are prescribed COVID-19 testing. Aetna is waiving co-pays for the test and will send a care package to members diagnosed with the illness.
Florida Blue will also waive all co-pays and deductibles for the testing, the company said on Friday afternoon.
It’s still not clear how the cost for uninsured patients will be covered.
The state Department of Health is currently advising doctors to contact their local health departments for guidance if a patient is symptomatic and has traveled to a country with widespread COVID-19, has been in contact with someone who has a confirmed diagnosis, or has severe respiratory symptoms with no other known cause.
For patients with milder symptoms, the health department wants physicians to rule out other respiratory infection before running a COVID-19 test.
In order to do the testing, state labs need patient samples, which include a swab of the nose and throat and a sputum collection. Collecting
the samples is a simple procedure and doesn’t need special material, but there’s no clarity so far about who can or should collect the samples.
One Orlando source familiar with the matter said that the health department only wants samples collected by hospitals. The Orange County health department didn’t respond to a question about sample collection.
But AdventHealth and Orlando Health said that the health department decides the process, including testing, if a patient is deemed at risk.
Dr. Ashley Norse, an emergency physician in Jacksonville and vice speaker for Florida Medical Association, said that her health system is working on designating a few doctors offices for sample collection, as long as patients meet the criteria set by the state.
Meanwhile, LabCorp and Quest, two of the major laboratory testing companies in the U.S., announced this week that they have COVID-19 testing available — LabCorp on Thursday and Quest by Monday — for physicians and other authorized health-care providers anywhere in the U.S.
The labs don’t collect specimens, but they process samples that are sent to them.
It’s not clear if doctors have to follow the Florida health department guidelines to send samples to the commercial labs.
“We expect to provide more information into testing when we launch the test on Monday,” said a spokeswoman for Quest Diagnostics, in an email.
Norse said that despite constant communication from federal and state health officials, “things are changing so rapidly that it’s become a challenge for physicians to keep up.”
On Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the federal government will send “tens of thousands” of coronavirus testing kits to Florida.
“We don’t have them yet, we’d like to get them obviously as soon as possible,” he said. “We certainly believe that would help things. Especially if we’re in a situation where we have a surge of people showing up with symptoms. Being able to do that local testing would make a big, big difference.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Thursday that a private manufacturer authorized to make the tests expects to ship the kits to U.S. laboratories by week’s end. That amounts to the capacity to test roughly 400,000 people, given that it takes multiple test samples to a confirm a result.
As of Friday afternoon, three Floridians were confirmed to have COVID-19 and five others had tested positive out of state. There’s also one case in Hillsborough County who is a Californian.
The state says so far 55 people have tested negative for the new coronavirus and another 51 are awaiting results.
About 260 individuals in the state are being monitored, including fewer than 30 in Orange County who are “very very low-risk,” said Dr. Raul Pino director of Orange County health department in a recent news conference.
“Our risk continues to be very low and from a public health point of view, we don’t foresee today under the current conditions to have any concerns for our community,” said Pino.
There’s no treatment or vaccine for COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself is to wash your hands frequently, avoid contact with individuals who are sick and stay home if you’re sick.
If you’re ill and suspect having COVID-19, call your doctor or the health department before going to a facility. You can find a list of local health departments here.