CMS Announces Coverage for COVID-19 Vaccine

On October 28 CMS announced new policies aimed at ensuring that all patients will be able to access the forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine at no cost to them. However, as with earlier policies for COVID testing, it doesn’t guarantee that vaccination will be covered at rates that over the full cost of care. The Medicare payment rates will be $28.39 to administer single-dose vaccines. For a COVID-19 vaccine requiring a series of two or more doses, the initial dose(s) administration payment rate will be $16.94, and $28.39 for the administration of the final dose in the series. Providers should get reimbursed for the uninsured through the HRSA uninsured portal. The announcement also makes a change regarding additional separate payments for new therapies. (Andrew Busz, AndrewB@wsha.org)