BIDEN’S TEST PLAN HITS DELIVERY BUMP — The Biden administration’s website for ordering free rapid Covid-19 tests quickly hit a logistical hurdle as some apartment dwellers struggled to order tests supplied by the federal government amid Omicron’s surge. The website, COVIDtests.gov, went live a day early on Tuesday as a “beta test,” sending millions of users to sign up for the tests using an order form ahead of an official Wednesday morning launch, health tech reporter Ben Leonard reports. A White House official said this was “standard practice to address troubleshooting” to make Wednesday’s launch “as smooth … as possible.” The problem: If you weren’t the first person in certain multiunit residences to order tests, you were met with an error message saying tests had already been ordered for that address. An administration official said the problem wasn’t widespread and orders are being prioritized for people in areas facing disproportionate Covid-19 cases and deaths — the first 20 percent of test orders processed will be for people in vulnerable ZIP codes. “This will help ensure those most in need of the tests are receiving them as quickly as possible,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the site. The U.S. Postal Service said the issue stems from buildings not being registered as multiunit complexes and affected only a “small percentage of orders.” The impact: Biden officials had already begun managing expectations before today’s rollout, warning that Omicron sparked an “extraordinary rise in demand” for tests, as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Sunday, and that tests could initially take some time to ship. The beta-testing hurdle also adds to equity concerns. Ben writes that, on top of the apartment confusion, a planned phone hotline for people without internet access wasn’t yet available on Tuesday. The administration official emphasized that the site hasn’t been officially launched and the call line would be ready by week’s end. President Joe Biden is slated to hold a press conference this afternoon, when he’ll likely field questions about the test delivery launch, Omicron projections and mask policies. Speaking of ... BIDEN’S MASK GIVEAWAY — The administration this morning unveiled a plan to distribute hundreds of millions of free, high-quality masks through pharmacies and community sites amid the Omicron surge. The masks will be N95s sourced from the government’s Strategic National Stockpile, three people with knowledge of the matter told David Lim and Adam before the announcement. The administration still doesn’t have kid-sized versions to distribute, but two of those sources familiar said they’re working to procure them. The initiative comes amid growing pressure on the administration to encourage Americans to abandon cloth masks in favor of more protective versions, amid evidence that the cloth coverings don’t work as well against the more transmissible Omicron variant. Public health experts and former Biden transition advisers have also lobbied the White House in recent weeks to give out masks, arguing that cheap and genuine N95s are still difficult for people to find, as David and Adam reported last week. But the plan is expected to lean heavily on pharmacies — which have become an integral part of the administration’s vaccination campaign — to also distribute the N95s at no cost. HHS: MILLIONS ON MEDICARE STRUGGLE WITH DRUG COSTS — More than 5 million Medicare beneficiaries struggle to afford their prescription medications, a number skewed toward older Black and Latino people, according to a Health and Human Services report publishing today. Yet, drug pricing issues spread far beyond the older population; people under 65 who qualify for Medicare because of kidney disease or disabilities have much higher rates of drug affordability problems than those 65 and older. What they say: The administration argues in its report that several proposed Medicare Part D reforms could lower costs and help those beneficiaries. That includes an ambitious proposal for the program to negotiate prices and limit price hikes past inflation — both currently mired in congressional deadlock — and an administration effort, signaled this month as an incoming rule, to apply point-of-sale rebates for customers. HHS also noted less controversial provisions such as capping out-of-pocket costs for enrollees. Ultimately, the report notes “substantial disparities” for people struggling to afford their medicine and argues those reforms could tackle equity issues. | 
