Milwaukee company offers home test for COVID
Officials worry costs will affect access, health gap
Milwaukee-area residents can now request in-home testing for coronavirus through RemedyNow, a local company started three years ago by two physicians to offer virtual and in-home health care.
RemedyNow is offering to test to people whose cases aren’t severe enough to meet the criteria for free testing through public labs, such as immunocompromised people who are symptomatic but not quite experiencing life-threatening breathing problems.
“These are a high-risk group of people,” said Dr. Danish Siddiqui, co-founder of RemedyNow. “You need to identify them, you need to monitor them and isolate them.”
The move is one example of private companies entering the testing field as public systems grapple with shortages and set limits on who they’ll test. The trend raises questions about who will have access, as private tests can be costly.
“Folks are used to a-la-carte services. I can skip all the lines if I have the money,” said Dr. LaMar Hasbrouck, a former medical epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was Illinois’ health secretary from 2012 to 2015. “I think it will amplify disparities, widen the health gaps.”
Officials are already raising concerns about disparate access to health care and other services. The eight people who died in Milwaukee County as of Thursday are African American.
Wisconsin’s main public lab is only processing tests for people who are hospitalized with severe breathing problems, and for symptomatic people in certain groups: health care workers, first responders, and workers or residents of long-term care facilities, prisons and jails.
Wisconsin clinicians may still offer tests to other patients if they can process the tests in their own labs or send the samples to a private lab for a charge. But not all are doing so.
Many immunocompromised and symptomatic patients have told the Journal Sentinel they were rejected for testing. Aurora Health Care, which had previously planned to offer drivethrough testing, announced last week it was suspending those plans and only testing severely ill patients who may require hospitalization.
RemedyNow is using private labs to process its tests. The company is offer
ing tests to patients who are symptomatic and part of a high-risk population: people over age 50 and people with underlying conditions like diabetes, COPD, congestive heart failure or others who are immunocompromised.
It’s also offering tests to health care workers with mild respiratory symptoms (like congestion or a sore throat) and to symptomatic caregivers of elderly patients.
If patients test positive, RemedyNow conveys their information to state and local health departments for followup care or monitoring.
A spokesperson for the state health department, asked whether officials would recommend RemedyNow as a testing option, said officials “don’t have enough information to comment” but recommend testing be done by licensed clinicians. A RemedyNow spokesperson said tests are done by physicians and nurse practitioners.
RemedyNow charges about $50 for the first virtual visit, when a clinician determines whether the patient meets criteria for testing. Then it’s another $150 for the clinician to visit the patient’s home, get the sample tested and deliver results about five to seven days later.
The costs are generally covered by health insurance, including BadgerCare, the company said. Those without insurance must pay out of pocket.
Some hospitals, such as those in the Ascension Wisconsin system, have committed to not billing patients for copays or any out-of-pocket charges for coronavirus testing or treatment, whether they’re insured or not.
Siddiqui said he is looking for funding to cover the cost of testing patients without insurance.
Siddiqui said the group has been getting 30 calls a day since beginning home testing Monday. He said most callers so far didn’t actually qualify for testing but wanted to talk to someone about the virus.
“They’re people who have unanswered questions and want to hear a human voice,” Siddiqui said. “We’re serving that group of people who are scared and want questions answered.”
Siddiqui said he hopes the service takes some pressure off hospitals, relieving overcrowding and allowing staff to focus on the most severe cases.
In Madison, UW Health has already been offering home visits. Dr. Nasia Safdar, the system’s director of infection control, said it’s been helpful for reducing contact between workers and patients who could be infected. The drawback, she said, is it’s hard to do on a large scale with limited staffing.
Looking to achieve that large scale, two California startups recently launched pricey test kits for consumers to collect their own samples and mail them in for analysis. Sales were suspended after the Food and Drug Administration warned it had not authorized the tests. Meanwhile, the UK government is purchasing millions of self-testing kits.
Safdar said while some private testing options may be helpful, ultimately Wisconsin needs to expand its public infrastructure as private options may not help everyone.
“It has the potential to amplify disparities because those who can afford it will be able to get it and those that can’t will need to be hospitalized to get feeexempt testing,” she said.
Safdar said she is especially concerned about people without housing.
“Those groups don’t have anywhere to be tested now because of a lack of public health infrastructure,” she said. “Everyone should be able to get tested if they meet criteria for testing but that doesn’t always happen.”
“They’re people who have unanswered questions and want to hear a human voice. We’re serving that group of people who are scared.” Danish Siddiqui co-founder, RemedyNow