More than three years after COVID-19 first sowed death and disruption, state and federal pandemic-related emergencies are officially ending Thursday.
The end of the emergency declarations will bring a slew of changes to state and federal requirements and programs related to COVID-19. The changes come now that hospitals are no longer overflowing with COVID-19 patients and daily deaths across the country have dropped.“The reason it’s no longer considered an emergency is we now have vaccines, we have treatments, we have adequate testing capabilities,” said Dr. John Segreti, hospital epidemiologist at Rush University Medical Center.
Here’s what the end of the emergencies means for Illinois residents, as society learns to live with COVID-19 long-term:If you have private insurance, you’ll probably have to start paying out-of-pocket for at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests. The federal government will no longer require health insurance companies to cover at-home antigen tests, such as those that can be purchased from a drugstore, after Thursday.
Private health insurers will no longer be required to fully cover the costs of PCR tests, and coverage will vary. Many private insurers, such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, plan to cover PCR tests, but patients might face a copay for them, depending on their plans, after Thursday. Medicare Part B will continue to cover PCR tests ordered by a provider at no cost to patients, as will Medicaid.The end of the public health emergencies doesn’t affect masking.
The Biden administration will also continue to offer Paxlovid at no cost to people without insurance, through its partnership with pharmacies, health departments and health centers.Hospitals will no longer have to report how many COVID-19 patients they have in beds.
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