OK, so to not give too much info, I had symptoms of either food poisoning or a stomach bug, and I thought “hey this probably isn’t covid but just to play it safe I’ll check what the CDC recommends.” So I spend WAY too much time filling out whether or not I’m Hispainic or Latino and all the other crap that apparently needs to be on every single form you fill out before I put in my two symptoms and I get this very vague thing that I think says I should get tested.
OK, so I google testing locations near me and find the one I went to a year ago (for whatever reason it was actually way easier back then). Call them a bunch of times and can’t reach them by phone. Eventually go to their website and set up a test with insurance for the evening last night. Then I call my primary care doctor’s office, because for some fucked reason I need to get a referral to see that I really need to get tested (wouldn’t want to accidentally limit spreading the plague). Then the testing place tells me I can just walk in and if I’m not doing with insurance I need to come in before 4PM, so I say I’ll get my referral and come in the next morning. Then my PCP calls back and says I don’t need a referral.
Cut to today. Go into the testing place and they tell me to scan a QR code. Testing availability not until 2 days from now. I check CVS and Walgreens and they also don’t have availability in-state for the next 2 days. Then I find another random urgent care place and they say they do walk-ins but my insurance doesn’t cover it (news to me). Call up my insurance and they say they do cover it but I need to get a referral from my PCP. Call up my PCP’s office again and explain what I just learned and a told that they can get back to me with a referral, but they only agree to refer people to CVS or Walgreens.
I still don’t know whether, where or when I’m going to get a test. It would be so much easier for me to just not bother dealing with this and spread the fucking plague. I can’t believe this is so difficult, we’ve only been doing it for a year and a half. BTW this is an extremely bad time for someone to try to explain to me why private health insurance is a good idea.
Many CVS locations (and, I would guess, Walgreens, too) now sell at-home, self-administered rapid tests, for which you do not need a prescription; when I thought I might have been exposed to COVID a month ago, I picked up one – the one I bought had two separate tests in it (so you can test twice), and cost about $25. The test takes something like 20 minutes to process.
The downsides are that it’s not covered by insurance, and you have to be willing to swirl a swab in your own sinuses. But, if you’re getting the Catch-22 runaround from your insurance and PCP, it may be a way to give you some peace of mind in the meantime.
…the most shocking thing reading this for me was the realization that what you’ve written here isn’t some isolated thing, but entirely the norm (at least for the state that you live in). I feel like we are living on different planets. Testing is fundamental to any effective pandemic response. I’m looking at Covid deaths in America and you are back to the same seven-day-average you were at in December, on an upwards spike. In about a month things are going to be very very bad. I just wish there was something I could do. Righteous rant. Good luck with the testing.
Yes, exactly this. If this weren’t in my brain I would just suck it up, pay out of pocket, curse out everyone I’ve had to deal with under my breath and move on.
I’m in a financial/work position where I can just work from home for a few days, leave and spend half an hour waiting in line to find out I can’t actually walk in and get tested and it doesn’t really affect me. And I’m the kind of person that goes through the effort in the first place. Most people either can’t afford to do this shit or just give up, and everyone who doesn’t get tested when this happens spreads it to more people and results in more untraceable cases which are the worst.
And by the way the state is Massachusetts. This isn’t even a right-wing state. We have a Republican Governor but it’s not like he’s a covid denialist or anything. He’s a bit of a “sometimes I need to put effort” denialist.
My wife and I got tested last Monday after finding out my daughter tested positive and we had been in contact with her the past 14 days. Walked in, filled out a short form and the big swabs were shoved up our noses. The county is picking up the cost of the tests, it’s part of the county executive’s plan to keep people safe. We were informed Wednesday morning we both tested negative.
Made an order for an at home test, so thanks to everyone who suggested that.
I don’t know the latest, but I think if you’ve been vaxxed you still have a moderate chance of getting and spreading covid, especially delta. There is a 90-something% chance what I have isn’t covid - I don’t have a cough at all and I’m vaccinated but I figured I’m supposed to do what the CDC says to play it safe.
Oh also I had to walk in to the clinic (for about 30 seconds) to actually talk to someone so I could find out that they are booked for testing today so it’s possible that one of the other people there actually had fucking covid and gave it to me which would really be swell.
A year ago they actually had things set up where you drive into the parking lot with an appointment that is either already cleared for insurance or you’re paying OOP, and someone would walk over to your car and give you the test without anyone having to go inside. I don’t know what happened.
ISTM like unless everyone is just buying these home tests rather than going through the rigamarole that I’ve been going through, the private system just doesn’t have the incentives to really give us the testing and contact tracing we need, and the government needs to step in. Unfortunately AFAIK it’s all local governments patchworking it in some areas rather than state and federal just doing it universally.
Which means we have the problem we’ve had since the start that some people are using some kind of system to test and trace in their little area but as soon as someone crosses outside of it you lose all of that.
Hmm. NHS, free, pack of seven rapid tests delivered in 24 hours. Can’t believe you guys get charged for rapid tests, surely the government wants to make it easy for people to get tested. I take a rapid test every time I want to go into our office.
I have two colleagues (in a company of 22) who have tested positive in recent weeks, and been ill, after being fully vaccinated, so that’s a hell yes from me.
Ya, I do get the impression that the spike has caught people off guard.
We’re about to be in a school year in fucking Massachusetts where all the colleges I’m sure are going to buy 1 gagillion tests for their students so they really needed to get their act together yesterday.
Actually come to think of it it’s entirely possible that people are sold out because all these kids traveling back for college are pushing demand.
Maybe I’m confused here, but AFAIK Walgreens and CVS let you schedule the appointment online/register online, and then just drive up to the pharmacy window, get the test kit, jam the swab up your own nose, stick it in the tube, bag it up, put it in the box, and go away.
No referral needed, no charge. At least that’s how it’s been the 2-3 times I’ve been tested. Super easy, and super convenient, outside of having to schedule the test.
My insurance says they I need a referral for it to be covered.
Also Walgreens and CVS are heavily booked so you need to schedule 2 days in advance. Which makes it double annoying that the other clinic wasted a day of my time because there’s a universe where I’d actually have something booked for tomorrow at least.
Sorry to the OP for all the fubar runaround. As someone who works in healthcare (I am a clerical drone, not a nurse or doctor) this is as frustrating on our side. Rules and processes change daily. And for reasons I don’t understand, nobody seems to have standing orders for this stuff. So a provider has to write the orders. This is just how medicine works. No order, no test, no med, no nothing. There are very few things that can be ordered by the patient.