On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which allocates billions of dollars to aid Americans impacted by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
FFCRA includes a series of measures to help impacted Americans – from bolstering funding for food assistance programs to emergency paid sick leave and expanded paid family and medical leave.
Healthcare-Related Provisions Under FFCRA
Importantly, FFCRA also includes several healthcare-related provisions aimed at expanding access to COVID-19 testing and related services with no cost-sharing obligations for patients.
Below is a summary of the key ways FFCRA works to improve access to COVID-19 testing, at no cost to patients:
- Requires certain private health plans and insurers to provide coverage for COVID-19 testing and certain related healthcare practitioner office visits, urgent care clinic visits, or ER visits that result in testing, without cost sharing or prior authorization/other medical management requirements.
- Requires Medicare to waive cost-sharing for certain provider visits during which a COVID-19 diagnostic test is administered or ordered.
- Provides for coverage, with no cost sharing, for COVID-19 testing (including associated cost of the provider visit in order to receive testing) by Medicare Advantage Plans.
- Requires that Medicaid, CHIP, TriCare, and other federal programs provide coverage for COVID-19 testing and certain related provider visits, without cost-sharing obligations.
- Allows for states to provide limited coverage to uninsured individuals under their Medicaid programs for COVID-19 testing.
- Temporarily increases states’ Medicaid federal medical assistance percentage by 6.2% for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency, should states meet certain requirements.
