Medicare to Cover Testing for the Coronavirus

Medicare announced that it will cover the cost of coronavirus testing for Medicare Part B beneficiaries if certain conditions are met, reports MSN . Those conditions include the test being ordered by the enrollee's healthcare provider and performed on or after Feb. 4. The provider also must wait to submit an insurance claim for the test until after April 1. The program has designed a standardized insurance billing code specifically for the coronavirus testing, which healthcare providers can use when submitting insurance claims. "This code will allow those labs conducting the tests to bill for the specific test instead of using an unspecified code, which means better tracking of the public health response for this particular strain of the coronavirus to help protect people from the spread of this infectious disease," a Medicare statement read. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said the agency has partnered with a private company to distribute up to 2,500 coronavirus test kits to labs this week, which should collectively provide roughly 1.25 million tests.