Now you can order free Covid-19 fast exams that shall be delivered to your mailbox — however you’ll solely get just a few.
The White Home’s long-awaited web site for ordering free Covid-19 fast exams is lastly dwell. The brand new web page, covidtests.gov, arrives amid a scarcity of fast exams and a surge in Covid-19 instances fueled by the omicron variant. Whereas this new program isn’t flawless, flooding the nation with simply accessible fast exams could possibly be a robust software to combat the pandemic.
Covidtests.gov is a part of the White Home’s plan to purchase and distribute 1 billion fast exams over the approaching months. The tip purpose of the brand new testing initiative is to make it simpler for individuals to search out out whether or not they have Covid-19, and if vital, isolate to curb the unfold of the virus. Technically, covidtests.gov wasn’t imagined to launch till January 19, however the authorities launched a “beta part” model of the positioning forward of that deadline, permitting many individuals to order exams early. Inside just a few hours of launch, the beta model turned the most well-liked authorities web site by a protracted shot.
Whereas it represents an enchancment over the state of affairs late final yr, when fast exams weren’t solely very tough to search out but additionally costly, the Biden administration’s new program comes with some caveats. To start with, every American family can solely order 4 exams — no matter how many individuals dwell there. And among the individuals who’ve tried to order exams have already run into technical points, which may worsen as extra customers go to the positioning.
“Hopefully, this isn’t a situation the place those that are capable of bounce on-line first are the one ones who can get exams,” Lindsey Dawson, the affiliate director of HIV coverage on the Kaiser Household Basis, advised Recode. Dawson added that the beta launch may assist the brand new Covid-19 web site keep away from among the bugs from the early Healthcare.gov days.
Given the frenzy round this new Covid-19 testing possibility, you most likely have some questions on find out how to navigate this system. Let’s begin with the fundamentals of the web site.
So this new web site helps you to order free Covid-19 exams. How exhausting may it’s?
The method is designed to be very simple. To order your family’s batch of 4 at-home fast antigen exams, go to covidtests.gov, which explains that everybody with a residential tackle in the US (in addition to individuals residing at abroad diplomatic and army outposts) is eligible to get the exams.
When you’re on the homepage, click on on the brilliant blue “Order Free At-House Assessments” button, and also you’ll get redirected to a particular part of the US Postal Service’s web site. (USPS partnered with the Division of Well being and Human Providers to assist with the logistics of the brand new program, and you may also begin your order by the USPS web site.) Fill out the shape on the web page by offering your identify, supply tackle, and, if you would like an e-mail order affirmation, your e-mail tackle. The web page does have a field together with your order info together with a spot for a greenback quantity, but it surely doesn’t ask for any bank card info. The greenback quantity ought to stay at $0.00 all through the ordering course of.
When you fill out that kind, click on on the brilliant inexperienced “Examine Out Now” button, and try to be despatched to a brand new web page that features a USPS monitoring quantity. In the event you supplied your e-mail tackle, you’ll additionally obtain an e-mail with that very same affirmation quantity. In the event you dwell within the continental US, your exams shall be shipped with USPS’s First Class Bundle Service. In the event you dwell in Alaska and Hawaii, or in a US territory or at an abroad diplomatic or army tackle, your exams shall be despatched by Precedence Mail. The positioning additionally has a steadily requested questions part that explains find out how to observe your order and find out how to use the fast exams as soon as they’re delivered.
Don’t wait to order exams. As a result of exams are imagined to take between seven to 12 days to ship, the federal government recommends that folks order exams on the positioning now, quite than ready till they’ve signs or are uncovered to somebody with Covid-19. The hope is that everybody within the nation will quickly have their very own mini stockpile of exams to make use of after they want.
Appears straightforward sufficient. What’s the catch?
There’s no catch, however there are a number of caveats it is best to have in mind.
The largest limitation of Biden’s new free fast check program is the four-test restrict, and for now, there aren’t any exceptions to this rule. Whereas 4 exams would possibly seem to be sufficient for a small family, fast exams work finest after they’re utilized in succession, and one individual might have a couple of check to catch a Covid-19 case.
To stop the identical family from ordering greater than 4 exams, the USPS web site is designed to catch individuals who put in the identical tackle for a number of orders. This would possibly trigger some individuals who dwell in condominium buildings to come across an error message saying that somebody has already ordered exams for his or her tackle. In the event you run into that downside, double-check that you simply’re together with a particular condominium or unit quantity when filling out the order kind.
“Each web site launch, in our view, comes with threat,” White Home press secretary Jen Psaki advised reporters at a briefing on Tuesday. “We are able to’t assure there gained’t be a bug or two.”
For individuals who don’t have entry to a pc or an web connection, the federal government has promised to arrange a telephone line, although it’s not clear when that can go dwell. This quantity would be the solely possibility for ordering exams with out visiting the net portal. You will be unable to cease by an area put up workplace and decide up the exams in individual.
What are my choices if want greater than 4 exams?
Past ordering exams on the brand new authorities web site, you may nonetheless purchase fast exams at pharmacies and on-line — and also you would possibly have the ability to get reimbursed for them. In case you are on a non-public insurance coverage plan, Medicaid, or the Kids’s Well being Insurance coverage Plan, you’re entitled to get no less than some, if not all, of the price of as much as eight exams reimbursed each month, in accordance with new insurance coverage steering issued by the Biden administration in January. In the event you don’t have insurance coverage or depend on Medicare and want greater than the 4 exams supplied by the federal authorities, it is best to hunt down free exams from state or native organizations.
If my non-public insurance coverage covers fast exams, how do I get reimbursed?
First issues first: Save the receipt for any Covid-19 check you purchase. Past that, precisely the way you get reimbursed for at-home fast exams will depend on which insurance coverage plan you have got and the place you purchased the check.
Some insurance coverage firms have partnered with sure pharmacies in order that their prospects can get exams with out going by the reimbursement course of. In case your plan doesn’t do that, it is best to contact your insurance coverage firm for particulars on submitting for a reimbursement.
Some insurance coverage firms have made the reimbursement course of a lot simpler than others. As an illustration, you probably have UnitedHealthcare, you may already decide up a fast check at no cost at any Walmart or Ceremony Assist pharmacy, so long as you have got your insurance coverage card. If in case you have Kaiser Permanente, you may submit a reimbursement declare by a web site. If in case you have Cigna, you’re dealing with a extra arduous course of that includes filling out a paper reimbursement kind that should be mailed or faxed to the corporate. That Cigna reimbursement kind is totally different from the kinds you utilize for different insurance coverage claims.
Additionally, remember that it might take a while for insurance coverage firms’ fast check reimbursement techniques to turn into absolutely operational. Some insurance coverage firms could change their method within the coming weeks and months.
Getting a fast check nonetheless feels difficult. When will issues be straightforward?
The testing state of affairs is bettering, but it surely’s not good. There are nonetheless plenty of unknowns which have thrust much more uncertainty into an already very unsure interval of the pandemic. Even with this new federal authorities web site, you don’t know for sure whether or not your check will truly arrive by the point you’ll want it, or whether or not you’ll have sufficient exams to catch a Covid-19 case do you have to get sick.
Nonetheless, covidtest.gov is a superb alternative to top off on provides when you can, and the brand new insurance coverage advantages — for those who’re fortunate sufficient to have them — are higher than paying full value for at-home exams. Regardless of the way you do it, you’ll most likely profit from having some fast exams round. And because the specialists say, check early and check typically. Issues will get higher.
