The process of COVID-19 testing is already overwhelming the U.S. health care system, tech companies are using their infrastructure to make testing accessible to more people. Health startups EverlyWell, Nurx, and Radish announced their own versions of at-home testing kits, while Hims launched a COVID-19 screening as part of its telemedicine offerings.
EverlyWell’s test costs $135. Nurx says its newly added coronavirus testing kit and consultation fee is covered by most insurance providers. Radish says it won’t be keeping profits from its $100 test, but instead will be donating the revenue to vaccine research. EverlyWell has reached out to government officials and public health departments to potentially make the test available for free.
Radish’s kit was already in existence, but the company repurposed it to work with the platform’s back end so customers can order and use it with the company’s virtual care offering.
However, DTC coronavirus testing is not FDA-approved. According to the FDA, “No at-home test has been granted an emergency use authorization…at-home test kits are explicitly exempt as part of our recent coronavirus diagnostics policy.”
According to Radish, though, its lab test is “offered under guidelines for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. FDA,” and that the test and “method of sample collection” falls within recommendations by the New York City Department of Health and the CDC.
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