The national government is providing the drug for free and thus no one is allowed to charge for it. The provider can bill for the administration of the vaccine. If a patient has insurance, the admin is billed to the insurance. If not, it's billed to a government program called HRSA. At my hospital I have been told that if any insurance company tries to pass on a portion of the administration as copay/coinsurance/deductible that we need to flag that payment to call the insurance company because they aren't allowed to do that.
In the US it's a bit of a mess. Right now most states are focusing on high risk people first. So medical staff, essential workers (I think) and those 65 and over.
My parents fall into the 65 and older category and can't find a vaccine anywhere local.
It'll be months I suspect before these groups of people get their shots. Then they move into another group and it'll repeat. I don't anticipate getting my shot until summer at the earliest.
The reason I say it's a mess in the US is each state is sort of doing their own thing. And some areas are getting very little vaccine.
Everywhere is short on vaccine relative to population. My county is on track to have doses equivalent to about 10% of the population administered this month, so enough 2 dose vaccines for 5% of the county, not a lot. They aren't sitting on much if they get those doses administered.
Has anyone here paid for it? How does this work with insurance?