Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests Available to Medicare Beneficiaries

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that Americans with Medicare Part B, including Medicare Advantage, can access up to eight free over the counter COVID-19 tests each month.
 
Members: this is an opportunity to assist your clients who are on Medicare to access at-home kits to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Medicare is not requiring participating eligible pharmacies and health care providers go through any new Medicare enrollment processes.
 
National pharmacy chains participating in this initiative include Albertsons Companies, Inc., Costco Pharmacy, CVS, Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, Hannaford Pharmacies, H-E-B Pharmacy, Hy-Vee Pharmacy, Kroger Family of Pharmacies, Rite Aid Corp., Shop & Stop, Walgreens, and Walmart.
 
Additional eligible pharmacies and health care providers may also participate, so people with Medicare should check with their pharmacy or health care provider to find out whether they are participating.
 
This initiative adds to existing options for people with Medicare to access COVID-19 testing, including:
 

• Requesting free over-the-counter tests for home delivery at gov. Every home in the U.S. is eligible to order two sets of four at-home COVID-19 tests.
• Access to no-cost COVID-19 tests through health care providers at over 20,000 testing sites nationwide. A list of community-based testing sites can be found here.
• Access to lab-based PCR tests and antigen tests performed by a laboratory when the test is ordered by a physician, non-physician practitioner, pharmacist, or other authorized health care professional at no cost through Medicare.
• In addition to accessing a COVID-19 laboratory test ordered by a health care professional, people with Medicare can also access one lab-performed test without an order and cost-sharing during the public health emergency.

 
More information can be found on this fact sheet.
 
People with Medicare can get additional information by contacting 1-800-MEDICARE or visiting https://www.medicare.gov/medicare-coronavirus.
 
Medicare also maintains several resources to help ensure beneficiaries receive the correct benefits while also avoiding the potential for fraud or scams here.