Reports are piling up of insured Americans being stuck with erroneous bills amounting to nearly $200 for shots, even though it should be covered by private insurance.
Major health insurance providers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna and Kaiser Permanente, told The Hill they planned to cover the COVID-19 shots as routine vaccinations.
Providers like Cigna and Anthem did not immediately respond when reached for comment or deferred inquiries to AHIP, the health insurance trade association.
Federal law requires insurance companies to cover the updated COVID shots immediately upon their approval or authorization, which happened Sept. 11.
The new vaccines are designed to protect against new strains of the coronavirus and are recommended for everyone older than 6 months.
While taking questions from reporters this week when he received his COVID-19 shot, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said any insurers that claim they aren’t covering the shots are “not correct.”
“Please make sure you’re talking to your insurance company because you should be covered by law. If you are insured, you are covered for COVID. If you are on Medicare, you are covered. If you are on Medicaid, you are covered and if you don’t have insurance — through this Bridge Access program — you are covered,” Becerra said.
For the uninsured, the Biden administration has established a temporary initiative called the Bridge Access Program, which will distribute vaccines through community health centers, local health departments and pharmacies.
HHS estimates more than 20,000 retail pharmacy locations across the U.S. will offer no-cost vaccinations through the program, scheduled to run until December 2024.
But community health centers and local health departments are also adjusting to a COVID response without the federal funds they enjoyed during the pandemic to help administer doses.
According to Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), there will only be about 6 million vaccines available under the Bridge program, though there are more than 25 million uninsured people in the country.
The vaccines are also more expensive now, and many health departments may not be able to cover the costs of these newer formulations, even with reimbursements, Freeman said.
