Starting Tuesday, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income people, MO HealthNet, will no longer reimburse people for purchasing at-home COVID-19 tests.
MO HealthNet is one of many state Medicaid programs choosing to stop covering over-the-counter tests because mandates in the federal Public Health Emergency and American Rescue Plan Act expire on September 30.
“MO HealthNet has been really the last straggler to do that,” said Kilgore’s Medical Pharmacy partner Bill Morrissey.
Morrissey said many private insurers have already ended reimbursement for at-home COVID-19 tests, but MO HealthNet covers Missouri’s most vulnerable populations who may not always be able to afford tests in the $5 to $10 range.
“It might take a little bit of effort, but I think most folks will be able to obtain them if they need to,” he said.
Morrissey said the Columbia department of Public Health and Human Services sometimes runs an outreach van, Health on Wheels, that provides free COVID-19 testing to residents, but it isn’t always ideal.
“When you need one is probably when you're feeling really sick,” he said. “You don't want to run around town trying to figure out how to pay for it.”
Morrissey recommends that Missourians on Medicaid still try to stock up on at-home tests.
“If a person has an opportunity to, ‘Hey, here’s a free one the health department is giving out’ or ‘Oh I’m at the pharmacy and I have an extra 10 dollars,’ maybe I have one in my medicine cabinet just in case,” Morrissey said.
MO HealthNet pharmacy director Josh Moore said he does not anticipate Missourians having trouble accessing COVID-19 tests.
“We are still continuing covering COVID testing at the doctor's office, the clinic, the labs, et cetera. So that's not ending,” he said.
Moore said MO HealthNet’s claim data showed that pharmacies were potentially filling out over-the-counter COVID-19 test prescriptions without necessarily receiving requests for those tests from participants. That contributed to the decision to stop reimbursing for the tests, he said.
“We’ll continue to monitor the situation,” Moore said, adding that he does not see the decision impacting cost or access for low-income Missourians with Medicaid.
Moore said there are other ways for Medicaid participants to access affordable at-home testing, including a program from the federal government that is currently offering four free tests to any household in the country.
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