People without insurance, whose health plans don’t cover visits to the clinics, or who have high-deductible plans must shoulder the full cost of the appointment.Įven if they can afford it, finding treatment might be impossible. Though CVS does not charge symptomatic uninsured people for on-site covid tests, MinuteClinics charge upwards of $100 for in-person or telehealth appointments to examine patients and prescribe an antiviral, if needed. The federal government has set aside nearly 400,000 courses of the antivirals for its federal pharmacy partners - about a quarter of the total supply since the program began in March.Īlthough the cost of the pills is covered by the federal government, obtaining a prescription at the pharmacies that dominate the program can be expensive. Walgreens drugstores and Kroger grocery store affiliates run about 400 more sites. The roughly 1,200 clinics, in 35 states and Washington, D.C., are housed under the same roof as CVS pharmacies, where patients can pick up prescriptions for covid antivirals. Nationally, CVS MinuteClinics make up more than half of all test-to-treat locations, according to the federal data.
Most states have none of those partners listed yet. HHS has asked state and local health departments to identify other potential participants, like San Francisco General Hospital, so they can be added. Ninety-one percent of the sites listed on the national map are federal partners: pharmacy chains like CVS, federally qualified health centers, and military and Indian Health Service clinics. It shows just three locations in San Francisco: two community health centers and one CVS. But the hospital, which largely treats low-income and uninsured patients, doesn’t appear on the federal map. “The best tools that we have are not going to reach the people who most need them,” she said.īibbins-Domingo is also a practicing physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, which she says is not only testing patients for covid and prescribing them antivirals, but also delivering them medications - all the elements of test-to-treat. Department of Health and Human Services’ reliance on partners that charge high prices for appointments, and the lack of clear information are stymieing the effort. She said the fragmented federal, state, and local public health systems, the U.S. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California-San Francisco. “All of our public health response relies on lowering the barrier to getting treatments to the right people,” said Dr.
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Subscribe to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing. Before the pandemic, 28% of Americans didn’t have a regular source of medical care, with rates even higher for Black and Hispanic Americans. And the website of the largest participant, CVS, has significant technical issues that make booking an appointment difficult.Įven people who regularly see a doctor may be unable to get a prescription in time, and that’s where the program comes in.
The federal government and many state and local health departments direct residents to an online national map where people can find test-to-treat sites and other pharmacies where they can fill prescriptions.īut large swaths of the country had no test-to-treat pharmacies or health centers listed as of April 14. The program allows people with covid symptoms to get tested, be prescribed antiviral pills, and fill the prescription all in one visit. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said April 11 that more people may qualify soon. Millions of chronically ill, disabled, and older Americans are eligible for the treatments, and Dr. They’re for people who are at high risk of developing severe illness but are not currently hospitalized because of covid-19. Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s Lagevrio are both designed to be started within five days of someone’s first symptoms.
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