FORT LEWIS, Wash. -- The Trump administration is making sure public and private insurers will pay for COVID-19 screening tests, Vice President Pence announced Thursday.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) "has already made the changes necessary so that the coronavirus test is now eligible for coverage under Medicare and Medicaid," Pence said at a press briefing at the Pierce County Readiness Center here. "We're working with members of Congress to ensure coronavirus testing is included as an 'essential health benefit' and will therefore be covered by all private insurance in this country as well ... We're making great progress in ensuring this test is available broadly."
The vice president also updated the official numbers on the outbreak, noting that the U.S. now has "at least" 150 COVID-19 cases, "including 70 confirmed cases in Washington state." Among the 150 cases are 49 patients who were repatriated from China or from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. He advised people to go to the CDC's coronavirus website to get more information on the epidemic.
"We have observed that seniors and Americans with underlying health conditions are particularly vulnerable to serious disease, especially following the heartbreaking loss of life at the nursing home in Kirkland," said Pence. Ten residents at the Life Care residential facility in the Seattle suburb have died so far. "We have taken action to address that. This week at President Trump's direction, we raised the standards for all nursing homes in America with regard to guidelines for preventing the spread of infectious disease."
In addition, "all 8,000 inspectors at CMS nationwide will be focusing all of their inspection efforts at nursing homes on compliance with standards to prevent the spread of infectious disease," he continued. "We want to make every effort to ensure seniors at nursing homes are as safe as possible from the spread of the coronavirus."
Test kits are also a focus of the administration. Earlier in the day, Pence visited the 3M company in Minnesota, a manufacturer of the N95 respirators. During that visit, he admitted, "We don't have enough test kits today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward," but at the Washington state press conference, he was upbeat.
"I'm happy to report the CDC has prioritized the delivery of test kits to Washington state and to California," he said. "The CDC's test supplier, a company known as IDT, will distribute kits across country that will enable 1.2 million Americans to be tested for coronavirus; those kits will be delivered in a matter of a few days. And by the end of next week, another 4 million tests will be available. We want to make sure testing is available broadly."
In addition, "President Trump brought together leaders of the top commercial labs in the country, and as we speak, at the president's urging they have formed a consortium," said Pence. "They tell us in a matter of weeks, they could well be in position where in the not too distant future, your doctor and your local pharmacy will have access to COVID-19 tests." He also commended Congress for passing an $8.3 billion supplemental funding bill to fight COVID-19; the president is expected to sign the bill on Friday.
Pence suggested that the mortality rate from COVID-19 may likely be lower than the current 3.4% estimated globally by the WHO. "I support the president's judgment that we're going to continue to learn more about this," Pence said during a question-and-answer session. "As we learn how many people actually contract this disease, we may well arrive at a lower number." He was referring to a theory offered Wednesday by President Trump, who said that the 3.4% mortality rate "is really a false number" and that "personally, I think the number is way below 1%" because many infected people have only mild symptoms and haven't been tested.
Ambassador-at-Large Deborah Birx, MD, who recently was added to the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, echoed those sentiments. "As we get numbers country by country, we've been able to see in countries like South Korea, they're doing broad testing so they're finding the mild disease, moderate disease, and severe disease," she said. "Their mortality rate is in the 0.5% range, which is significantly less."
Pence was in Washington state to see the progress being made against the outbreak there; he met with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and toured the state's Emergency Operations Center; prior to his arrival in the state, he led a conference call of the coronavirus task force.
During the press briefing, Inslee said he spoke with Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who "has provided very useful information." As for the conflicting opinions on the mortality rate, "I don't think we have the luxury of having debates of that nature right now," he said. "We all agree we need to get more tests in the field, increase manufacturing for personal protective devices, and develop a vaccine as fast as humanly possible, I'm pleased we have good consensus about those things."