HHS: Health insurers are committed to COVID vaccine coverage, no cost sharing

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra (Photo: Drew Angerer/Bloomberg)

On Wednesday, a group of health insurers from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana and others met virtually with the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to discuss how HHS will continue to partner with the private sector to ensure individuals have access to updated COVID-19 vaccinations. Also, the HHS received commitments that the new vaccines will be completely covered, after reports surfaced of some people having to pay out-of-pocket – up to $200 – for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

This meeting is the latest in an ongoing series of conversations between HHS and the health care sector for over a year in preparation for the rollout of the updated COVID vaccines. Other insurers that attended the meeting were CVS Health (which owns Aetna), CareFirst, Anthem, UnitedHealth Care and the Better Medicare Alliance as well as the trade group AHIP. The insurers told Becerra that the technical issues with vaccine coverage have been “largely if not completely” resolved.