The changing COVID testing landscape

Also: A roadblock to life-saving addiction treatment is gone. Now what? [View in browser](    [❤️]( March 7, 2023 Hi CommonHealth reader, When I last wrote about COVID in this space in early January, infections were on an upswing, fueled by an increase in indoor social gatherings and a contagious new subvariant. But over the past two months, that trend has reversed. The positivity rate for COVID tests reported to state officials fell to under 6%, from nearly 14% around the beginning of the new year. Wastewater data also shows decreasing levels of coronavirus in the Boston area. "This is all encouraging," Dr. Sabrina Assoumou, infectious disease physician at Boston Medical Center, told me. Against this backdrop, state and federal officials are planning some big changes to their COVID response. At the federal level, the public health emergency implemented in 2020 is scheduled to end on May 11. This means [lots of rule changes]( that have implications for how people access and pay for COVID tests. For example, the federal government will no longer require health insurance companies to cover the costs of eight rapid antigen tests for each member each month. Insurers could do so voluntarily, but Massachusetts’ biggest insurance companies told me they have not yet made a decision. Another change hitting even sooner: Massachusetts health officials are closing the last 11 sites where residents can get PCR tests for free at the end of this month. Officials told me demand for tests has plummeted — from about 12,000 tests per week last summer to fewer than 1,000 tests per week now. Assoumou said she always advocates for more testing — partly, because the data helps us understand how the virus is spreading. But she said it’s reasonable for the state to wind down testing sites when cases are trending down, as long as those sites can reopen in the future if needed. Together, state and federal policy changes could make it harder for some people to access and pay for COVID tests. "There are some folks who will fall through the cracks — there always are," Dr. Robert Klugman of UMass Memorial Health told me. "But there are certainly a number of other venues now where people have access to testing." These include pharmacies, doctor’s offices and urgent care centers. But many people will be paying more for tests. For more on the new COVID testing landscape, you can [read my full story here](. Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Senior Health Reporter [Follow]( Support the news  This Week's Must Reads [A roadblock to life-saving addiction treatment is gone. Now what?]( Federal restrictions seemed to explain why many doctors weren't prescribing medication for opioid addiction. But some caution that removing those rules isn't enough to overcome hesitancy and stigma. [Read more.]( [A roadblock to life-saving addiction treatment is gone. 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