Federal Government Will Cover Costs of Administering COVID-19 Injections

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new regulations that will ensure that every person has access to a COVID-19 vaccine, free of charge. Under the new regulations, the vaccine would be considered a preventive vaccine and Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers would all be reimbursed for the cost of physically injecting someone with the vaccine. If two doses are required, Medicare will pay more for the second.

These regulations implement provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, which was passed earlier this year. The legislation allocated funding to cover the costs of buying vaccines that were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as well as the cost of administering the vaccine. These regulations accomplish that by:

1. Removing regulations that prevented Medicare from covering the costs of vaccines approved by the FDA under the Emergency Use Authorization approval process,
2. Providing funding for private insurers to cover both in- and out-of-network providers who administered the vaccine,
3. Instructing state Medicaid agencies to provide vaccine administration with no cost sharing for most beneficiaries during the public health emergency and
4. Reimbursing providers through the Provider Relief Fund for administering the COVID-19 vaccine to individuals without insurance.

These regulations are effective throughout the course of the public health emergency, after which cost-sharing rules may be reviewed.