Medicare and Medicaid announced a plan Tuesday to make the first approved coronavirus vaccines free for beneficiaries.
“The rule removes any existing ambiguity surrounding Medicare’s coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The plan eliminates all out-of-pocket costs for the poor and the elderly, a change from current policy, which allows for vaccine administration charges. Additional costs for administering the vaccines are “strictly prohibited,” Verma told reporters Wednesday.
The rule also requires most private health insurance plans to cover all out-of-pocket COVID-19 vaccine costs for out-of-network providers, a provision included in the March CARES Act.
Medicare will also cover an additional 65% of the costs of new coronavirus treatments authorized for inpatient use by the FDA in an effort to disincentivize hospitals from stockpiling expensive therapies.
Verma added that the new payment rules could be effective regardless of which candidate wins the presidency.
“We’ve been very clear at a bipartisan level that every American wants to make sure that everyone has access to vaccines,” Verma said. “And so, the rules that we’re putting in place should be in really any administration.”
