Since the Biden administration announced on January 15 that insurers will be required to Digital health company Truepill, which provides members with eight over-the-counter Covid-19 tests a month, has been busy developing a platform to help health plans meet the requirement.
In May, the San Mateo, California-based startup offered pharmacy delivery and telehealth services to brands including Hims, Nurx and Lemonaid, Added home testing. Co-founder and President Sid Viswanathan said in an earlier interview The company planned to offer diagnostic services from the start.
This Covid-19 Test Coverage Platform Customers will be provided with a behind-the-scenes partner who can assist with everything from checking membership test coverage to delivering those tests to their home and providing shipping updates en route.
“We found that a lot of programs had to react to this in a very short period of time, so we were building a white-label e-commerce experience that programs could leverage,” said Varun Boriah, senior vice president of diagnostics at Truepill, in a phone interview. “We can put the logo of any program on that asset and manage the patient experience for them.”
The Biden administration is encouraging health plans and insurers to create a network of convenient locations, such as pharmacies and retailers, where policyholders can get tested without filing reimbursement claims. The federal government has created a website, covidtests.govwhere people can access free Covid-19 tests, and the U.S. Postal Service has been invited to provide them for free.
“While the government is working to distribute free tests through the USPS, which is a great way to ensure access and affordability, A plan to ensure testing is covered through a health plan is the second way to achieve these two goals,“Boria said.
OTC Covid-19 tests have been in short supply and have recently been emptied from pharmacy shelves during the Omicron surge and at other times during the pandemic.but Truepill has existing relationships with manufacturers and distributors, so it has an ongoing supply of Covid testing stock.
“There has been no disruption to our supply chain,” Boriah said. Given the apparent disruption to commerce and shopping in general, this is a remarkable statement.
Truepill is responsible for the cost of obtaining tests from the marketplace, processing the order, and shipping them to patients. In return, it receives reimbursement from health plans and pharmacy benefit managers.
In addition to the federal government, many states from coast to coast are also offering free home testing for Covid-19, from Washington and Colorado arrive Iowa and New Jerseysome cities like New York City and Boston Also distributing tests.Major retailers from CVS to Kroger to Amazon are also making it easy to order Covid-19 tests online, though consumers still need to get reimbursed through insurance companies.
In addition to the Covid test coverage platform, Truepill has a Covid-19 testing platform and a Covid-19 Virtual Care Platform Offers on-demand telehealth consultations and next-day home delivery of Covid-19 oral antiviral medications.
“We’re really thinking about bringing a lot of different tools to this work to help us through this pandemic,” Boriah said.
Photo: Violeta Stomenova, Getty Images
