CLEVELAND, Ohio — As Covid-19 continues spreading across the country, health insurance providers are taking steps to ensure Americans have access to treatment and testing.
- Most health insurance carriers are not charging co-pays or deductibles for coronavirus testing, but an expert says to check your policy to find out your specific coverage
- Business owners are being denied claims because their policy doesn't cover a loss due to a pandemic
- Ohio's legislature introduced a bill that would force insurance companies to pay for business interruption losses due to the coronavirus
Aetna is waiving co-pays for all diagnostic testing related to Covid-19. It's also offering zero co-pay telemedicine visits.
Anthem will cover the cost of coronavirus testing with no out-of-pocket costs and Medical Mutual of Ohio is waiving cost sharing associated with Covid-19 testing.
In addition, hospital system Mercy Health, is suspending all Covid-19 patient statements and billing.
"There's been some information out that insurance carriers have agreed not to charge anything for all the coverage regarding Covid-19 and I don't believe that that was completely accurate in the fact that I think the insurance carriers are still going to charge for while you're in the hospital, but it would be subject to your coverage," said Jill Bisco, director of the risk management Insurance program at the University of Akron.
Bisco says most health insurance carriers are not charging co-pays or deductibles for coronavirus testing, but checking with your insurance policy is the best way to find out your specific coverage.
As far as insurance coverage for small businesses, business owners are being denied claims because their policy doesn't cover a loss due to a pandemic.
"A lot of the insurance policies have exclusions for bacteria, bacteria and virus, it just depends on the wording. Some are arguing that the virus itself caused damage to property, that the virus exists on the property as property damage," said Bisco.
Ohio's Legislature is now taking steps to help those business owners. A bill introduced last week would force insurance companies to pay for business interruption losses due to the coronavirus.
The bill provides that every policy of insurance includes coverage for business interruption due to global virus transmission or pandemic during the state of emergency — a provision that's currently not in most policies.
"My biggest recommendation for small businesses is to look at their insurance contract and see what kind of exclusions they might have," said Bisco.