Michigan's COVID epidemic orders end; what happens now

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services rescinded Thursday all remaining COVID-19 related epidemic orders as the nationally declared public health emergency officially ended.

Residents can continue to receive free COVID vaccine shots because current vaccines are considered federal assets, health officials said in a Thursday release. When the federal supply runs out, which is projected to happen in the fall, individuals will have to pay for shots as the vaccines move to the commercial market, the health department said.

The Biden administration plans to preserve free access to COVID-19 vaccines for the uninsured and underinsured after the health emergency ends.

Authorized COVID-19 therapeutics also will continue to be available for free until the federal supply of antiviral treatments is depleted. Then most residents will pay whatever portion is not covered by their health plan, state health officials said.

But Michigan participants in the state-federal Medicaid health care program for mostly low-income residents will get the antiviral treatments at not cost through Sept. 30, 2024.

The end of the health emergency means that COVID will look more like any other illness: Sick individuals will start by going to their primary care physician to get authorized for testing or treatment instead of going to nearly any pharmacy or medical office, said Brian Miller, deputy director of the Michigan Association of Health Plans, the industry group representing most health insurers in the state.

COVID-19 tests will no longer be free.

For much of the pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services required that health insurance — private, Medicaid and Medicare — paid in full for over-the-counter and laboratory COVID-19 tests.

Private insurers now have the option to "cost share," or ask patient to pay their copays or whatever other fees they have on tests, although federal health officials are still "encouraging" insurers to offer it for free.

Although the state epidemic orders are ending, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said hospitals and nursing homes will need to observe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirements and guidance that still will continue to require reporting of COVID infections.