HHS announces initiative to help uninsured and underinsured Americans access COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced a new effort to help uninsured and underinsured Americans access the COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment bebtelovimab even after the product became available on the commercial market last month.
HHS is making 60,000 doses of the product available to support the bebtelovimab product replacement initiative. Through this new initiative, which is effective immediately, healthcare providers who use a commercially procured dose of bebtelovimab to treat an uninsured or underinsured patient may be eligible to have the dose replaced for free by HHS. Healthcare providers can use their own established methods for determining uninsured or underinsured status, such as eligibility criteria for existing programs for which a patient may already be eligible. At the current rate of use, the additional doses purchased for this initiative are expected to be available through September 2023.
Approximately 8% of Americans are not covered by a government insurance program such as Medicare or Medicaid or by private insurance. The Medicare and Medicaid programs fully cover all costs for bebtelovimab treatment, and the therapeutic is likely to be covered under most private health insurance plans.
