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State reports more coronavirus cases from that Biogen conference; tells health insurers to waive patient fees for Covid-19 testing and treatment

The state Department of Public Health reported five new Covid-19 cases in Massachusetts today - three of them apparently contracted at a meeting of Biogen employees at the Marriott Long Wharf last week.

Separately, the state Division of Insurance yesterday issued guidance to the state's health insurers on Covid-19 that calls on them to offer diagnostic tests to people with possible symptoms at no cost - and to waive any co-payments or other patient fees for treatment. The memo also calls for insurers to waive out-of-network fees for patients who seek emergency care at a hospital or health center not part of their insurance networks and to waive fees for counseling and, when they become available, vaccinations.

The newly reported cases raise the total number of Massachusetts Covid-19 cases to 13 - 8 of them linked to the Biogen meeting. Another three people - a Tennessee resident and two foreigners who were at that meeting have also been diagnosed with the virus.

The states says that of the five new cases, four are among people from Middlesex County: a woman in her 40s, another in her 50s, a man in his 40s and a man in his 60s. The fifth case is a Berkshire County man in his 60s.

One of the non-Biogen cases was in a person who had recently returned from Italy; the other is still under investigation by state epidemiologists. Wicked Local Concord reports the travel case was diagnosed at Emerson Hospital in Concord, after calling the hospital on returning from Italy. That person is now self quarantined at home with mild symptoms.


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Comments

Wow, free health care.

Now if they could only extend this to all other illnesses...

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People still have to make their monthly payments for insurance. And Massachusetts has long been a pioneer at ensuring everybody can get vaccines - because unlike the current administration in Washington, the state realizes that the cost of NOT providing free or low-cost vaccines is way, way higher in the long run.

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There's a vaccine for this?

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I was talking about vaccines in general.

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Free now, but when calculating the premium for the next renewal, these costs will be taken into account for the next increase.

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Although that's not the only thing.

It's good for health care industry in the long run. Insurance or not, the fewer people infected, the lower their costs. They want everyone paying premiums and no one using services. They are even more terrified at COVID-19 than the general population.

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Yes, but that's true for many illnesses.

It's one of the reasons free health care is a good idea.

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This state also requires that chemo drugs be free. Though I've seen insurance charge a copay, then send a check to reimburse at the end of the year.

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You say chemo drugs are required to be free in Mass. Huh?

I've picked up chemo drugs for a sick relative (who has good insurance) at the drugstore, and put it on my credit card, and believe me it wasn't free. A little bottle of pills was over a hundred bucks. You have any more specifics?

Or maybe they have a narrow definition of "chemo" and cancer patients have to take lots of ancillary pills to go along with the "chemo" and they gouge them on those? I don't know any details, don't even know what the pills were -- I was just a courier -- but maybe you could expand a bit on your statement...

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just about every hospital will take your donation.

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