--- title: Government Requires Insurers to Cover At-Home COVID-19 Tests - Recuro Health | Making Advanced Healthcare Accessible™ description: Starting, Jan. 15, insurance companies must cover the cost of at-home testing, meaning most consumers with private health coverage can buy a test and either get the cost covered upfront or get reimbursed later by submitting a claim to their plan. image: https://info.recurohealth.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20220118-Recuro-Website-Home-News-Preview-GovernmentRequiresInsurers-02-1.jpg --- [![SHOWBenefits](https://info.recurohealth.com/hubfs/Competitive_Health_July2019%20Theme/Images/chi-primary-color-logo-horiz_1.png)](https://www.showbenefits.com) # Default HubSpot Blog [![feed](https://info.recurohealth.com/hubfs/Competitive_Health_July2019%20Theme/Images/bg_feed.gif) RSS Feed ](https://info.recurohealth.com/blog/rss) ## [Government Requires Insurers to Cover At-Home COVID-19 Tests](https://info.recurohealth.com/blog/government-requires-insurers-to-cover-at-home-covid-19-tests) 01/18/2022 [![Digital-Transformation-Health-Benefits](https://info.recurohealth.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/20220118-Recuro-Website-Home-News-Preview-GovernmentRequiresInsurers-02-1.jpg?height=500&name=20220118-Recuro-Website-Home-News-Preview-GovernmentRequiresInsurers-02-1.jpg)](https://recurohealth.com/contact/) ### Starting January 15th, Insurance Companies Must Cover the Cost of At-Home Testing Newly released guidance from the Departments of Labor and Treasury will significantly expand the scope of required coverage of at-home COVID testing without participant cost-sharing and without a physician order. Starting, Jan. 15, insurance companies must cover the cost of at-home testing, meaning most consumers with private health coverage can buy a test and either get the cost covered upfront or get reimbursed later by submitting a claim to their plan. This is important news for current and prospective Recuro Health clients since we offer at-home COVID-19 tests as well as support for employers that must comply with OSHA testing requirements. Our structured solution provides a safe, convenient and confidential at-home and worksite lab testing experience. Insurer-covered testing is expected to dramatically reduce costs for many Americans and make COVID-19 tests more accessible to enable at-home testing and monitoring. ### Details of Coverage Guidance The new guidance beginning Jan. 15 affirms that the limit of eight tests is per beneficiary. The limit is only for the tests that a provider does not order — so a consumer with a provider order is eligible for additional tests without cost-sharing. When plans and insurers make tests available for upfront coverage through preferred pharmacies or retailers, they are still required to reimburse tests purchased by consumers outside of that network, at a rate of up to $12 per individual test (or the cost of the test, if less than $12). The guidance also creates a safe harbor for plans that move forward with a so-called “direct coverage” process. For purposes of this safe harbor, direct coverage of over-the-counter (OTC) COVID-19 tests means that a participant, beneficiary, or enrollee is not required to seek reimbursement post-purchase; instead, the plan or issuer must make the systems and technology changes necessary to process the plan’s or issuer’s payment to the preferred pharmacy or retailer directly with no upfront out-of-pocket expenditure by the participant, beneficiary, or enrollee. 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