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January 12, 2022
To Our Valued Clients and Partners,
We’d like to extend a warm welcome to our newest clients joining us for the first time. We hope that you find our monthly newsletter relevant and informative. We trust that your new year is off to a great start and we look forward to serving you and your people in 2023.
On Monday, our offices will be closed so we can honor Dr. Martin King, Jr., and all that he contributed to our country. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a person who lived his life in service to others. He was quoted as saying: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is: 'What are you doing for others?' ". We encourage our employees and everyone to consider using Monday to do something for someone else or get inspired to look for volunteer opportunities that align with community causes you care about in 2023.
COVID-19 Update:
COVID-19 Mandates Extended Under the Public Health Emergency
On January 11th, the Biden administration extended the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for another 90 days. The administration also reiterated that it is committed to providing a 60-day notice to states that it will end the emergency. That means that by this time next month we will know if early indicators pan out about this being the last PHE extension. We have received the first indication from the tri-agencies that the rules under the Public Health Emergency affecting your health plan will begin winding down in April of 2023. If you have not completed the COVID change form yet, please do so and return to your Account Manager as soon as possible.
As a reminder, here is how this mandate affects your health Plan:
- COVID-19 Testing. Group health plans are required to cover the cost of COVID-19 tests, both in-network and out-of-network, as well as the cost of up to eight (8) over-the-counter test kits per month at no cost-share.
- COVID-19 Vaccinations. Non-grandfathered Group Health Plans are required to cover the cost of administering COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots at no cost-share.
This mandate is separate from the mandates under the National Emergency Concerning the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic, which includes, among other things: (1) special enrollment timeframes, (2) claims and appeals filing deadlines, (3) COBRA qualifying event and (3) enrollment deadline extensions. The National Emergency is currently scheduled to expire in February of 2023; however, we speculate that this date could also be extended.
At Home COVID-19 Test Kits Receive Expiration Date Extensions from the FDA
Is it safe to use expired at-home over the counter COVID-19 diagnostic test kits? The FDA has indeed extended the expiration dates for some home tests. Following the directions for using the table at this FDA link to find out if your test has an extended expiration date.
Home COVID-19 tests kits are readily available through most major pharmacies and in Washington State residents may order additional free COVID-19 home test kits from the WA Department of Health’s “Say Yes, COVID Test” Program. Additionally, throughout the national COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, health plans must continue to cover up to eight COVID-19 home tests each month for each plan member.
Vaccines and Boosters
Last month the CDC updated its vaccine and booster recommendations to include the FDA’s latest emergency use authorizations for bivalent booster administration.
Current CDC eligibility for the bivalent boosters is recommended for:
- For everyone aged 5 years and older if it has been at least 2 months since your last dose.
- For children aged 6 months–4 years who completed the Moderna primary series and if it has been at least 2 months since their last dose.
There is no booster recommendation for children aged 6 months–4 years who got the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine primary series.
Updated (bivalent) Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine also became available on December 9, 2022 for children aged 6 months–4 years to complete the primary series.
Trends and Variants
The CDC’s reported U.S. weekly new COVID-19 case count as of January 11th is at 471K new cases per week, which has remained relatively flat for the last five weeks but is a sliver of the 5.48 million new cases reported per week one year ago. For more details, please visit the CDC COVID Data Tracker: Compare Trends Across States and Regions.
As we have seen over the last year, new COVID-19 variants are again emerging and increasing in proportion each week. The latest variants to rise over the last month are BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and XBB.1.5.. Collectively, these three variants have grown from less than 6% of reported cases from the week ending October 8th, to 29% of cases for the week ending November 5th, to 52% of cases for the week ending December 3rd, to 84% of cases for the week ending January 7th.
As XBB.1.5 becomes the dominant omicron variant, the World Health Organization on January 11th recommended mask-wearing for long-haul travel and school districts in high case rate counties across the country are also recommending mask-wearing as students return to classrooms following the holiday breaks.
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