Insurance plans of those in the ARS health plan system of the Dominican Republic will only cover one PCR test for Covid-19 a year. A Ministry of Public Health resolution limits these to one a year person, effective 23 April 2021. The same resolution obliges the person to submit an antigen test that is not covered by insurance and costs around RD$2,000.
After having the result of the antigen test, to have your health insurance cover the PCR test, a physician needs to write up a prescription that specifies that the patient is symptomatic with negative antigen, asymptomatic with confirmed contact with positive persons and negative antigen, or asymptomatic with unconfirmed contact and positive antigen. PCR tests covered by the insurance companies are paid by the Ministry of Public Health that picks up the tab for the test.
Dr. Waldo Ariel Suero, president of the Dominican Medical Association, says that the new test restriction will result in an under registry of Covid-19 cases. He said the measure is contrary to efforts to combat the spreading of the disease. He said most Dominicans do not have the RD$2,000 or RD$7,000 needed to get tested and will not get the test until they show severe symptoms. By that point, says Dr. Suero, the person will have spread the disease to many.
The measure is taken to counteract a would-be surge in testing. Nevertheless, the average 14-day testing in the Dominican Republic in the days when the tests were available to those who had ARS insurance coverage is 3,230 as of data from Bulletin #402 with the deadline of 24 April 2021.
As reported in Listin Diario, the president of the Association of Clinics and Private Hospitals (Andeclip), Dr. Rafael Mena says they are against the measure primarily because it will reduce the early detecting of infected persons.
The Dominican government had been subsidizing the tests as part of measures to reduce the spread of the virus.
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25 April 2021