Medicare Services and COVID-19

According to the CDC, older adults and people who have severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung, or kidney disease are at higher risk for severe COVID-19. This means that most people with Medicare are at higher risk.

Medicare will pay for your COVID-19 vaccine

There's no cost to you to get any of your COVID-19 vaccine doses. But you should bring your Medicare card to your vaccine appointment so the vaccine provider can bill Medicare.

Covid-19 vaccines are now available to people ages 6 months and older. You can search for vaccines near you at vaccines.gov.

Medicare covers other COVID-19 services

You’ll pay no out-of-pocket costs for:

• The lab tests to see if you have COVID.
• Up to 8 over-the-counter COVID tests each month.
• FDA-authorized antibody (or serology) tests to see if you previously had COVID-19.
• Monoclonal antibody treatments for confirmed COVID-19.

Medicare also covers:

• All medically necessary hospitalizations. For example, if you’re already in the hospital, you’re diagnosed with COVID-19 while there, and your doctor says you need to stay longer than you otherwise might have to quarantine. You’ll still pay for any hospital deductibles, copays, or coinsurance that apply.

Other ways Medicare is helping

Medicare is responsible for developing and enforcing the essential health and safety requirements that your doctors must meet. Medicare is taking these steps to make sure you're getting high-quality care in response to COVID-19:

• Giving Medicare health plans and health care providers flexibility with regulations.
• Temporarily expanding its coverage of telehealth services, meaning you may be able to communicate with your doctors or certain other practitioners without necessarily going to the doctor’s office in person for a full visit.
• Waiving certain requirements for skilled nursing facility care.

For more information

For more details on what Medicare covers and how it's responding to COVID-19, visit www.medicare.gov/medicare-coronavirus.