Does Medicare Cover COVID-19?

Medicare is responsible for developing and enforcing the essential health and safety requirements that health care providers must meet, including taking additional steps in response to the Coronavirus.

• Medicare covers the lab tests for COVID-19. You pay no out-of-pocket costs.
• Medicare covers all medically necessary hospitalizations. This includes if you’re diagnosed with COVID-19 and might otherwise have been discharged from the hospital after an inpatient stay, but instead you need to stay in the hospital under quarantine.
• If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, you have access to these same benefits. Medicare allows these plans to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 lab tests. Many plans offer additional telehealth benefits.

In the face of COVID-19, your health, safety, and welfare are Medicare’s highest priorities. To learn more about other ways Medicare is helping visit www.medicare.gov/medicare-coronavirus or contact the Council on Aging-Southern California’s Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP).

In Orange County call 714-560-0424.  For the Inland Empire call 909-256-8369. HICAP provides free, unbiased counseling to Medicare beneficiaries and their families.