To provide peace of mind to individuals and families enrolled in our health plans, we worked quickly to waive all cost sharing for COVID-19 testing and treatment. In addition, more than 100,000 of our clinicians provided critically needed care – in clinic, telephonic and virtual visit settings – to our patients and those in need, and we extended our expertise to help key partners expand testing and treatment capacity in the hardest hit areas.
We waived cost sharing for diagnostic testing/treatment; allowed early prescription refills; expanded telehealth capacity and offered free unlimited telehealth visits; removed COVID-19 prior authorization requirements; extended claims filing deadlines; allowed grace periods for premium payments; provided over $1.5 billion in credits and waived cost sharing for health care to support members affected by COVID-19; and developed the OptumRx Prescription Relief Program to support members who lost coverage because of furloughs or job loss.
We opened free access to our mental health mobile app and 24/7 emotional support phone lines; extended hours at our behavioral health pharmacies to ensure medication adherence; partnered with California and Indiana to increase testing capacity; and collaborated with New Jersey to help expand care delivery capacity.
We opened a special enrollment period to allow commercial customers to add employees who previously declined health coverage.
We implemented provisional credentialing to make it easier for out-of-network providers who are licensed independent practitioners to participate in one or more of our networks.
UnitedHealth Group's COVID-19 Response