McKesson Update Regarding Availability of COVID-19 Test Kits (August 2020)
CCPA Purchsasing Partners and McKesson would like to provide the latest update as it relates to the availability of COVID-19 test kits at this time. Please review the following information provided by McKesson Medical-Surgical for further details.
As you may have read in CCPAPP's previous update, on July 14, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a large-scale procurement of FDA authorized antigen point-of-care instruments and tests to be distributed to nursing homes in COVID-19 hotspot geographic areas (view the announcement on the HHS website)
On August 20, the HHS announced a second wave of procurements of FDA authorized antigen point-of-care instruments and tests to be distributed to nursing homes. Unlike the first wave of procurements, HHS leveraged the Defense Production Act (DPA) to apply priority rated orders for the BD Veritor and Quidel Sofia.
This initiative is a federal government procurement program targeted to facilitate on-site testing among nursing home residents and staff. Through this crucial action, nursing homes will be able to augment their current capacity for coronavirus testing, bolstering their response and helping to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This is great news for our country and senior residents who have been so disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
How does this impact antigen testing supply?
Reports stated that the initial procurement in July included more than 4,000 analyzers and 1.5 million tests from Quidel and BD*. This second procurement includes more than 10,000 analyzers and 3 million tests from Quidel and BD. This will severely further limit the supply of BD Veritor from McKesson for the next few weeks; Quidel will see some lesser impacts to supply.
What steps can I take to ensure access to tests?
McKesson continues to focus on maintaining the existing supply of testing over the next few weeks; as manufacturer supply increases, McKesson will be able to increase customer allocations. Please note: members must have contracts in place to access the Quidel Sofia SARS-COV-2 tests.
Receive ongoing updates:
As always, you can learn more at HHS.gov and visit McKesson's COVID-19 Updates Page regularly for updates, recommendations, best practices, webinars and resources. Please contact your McKesson Account Executive or CCPAPP with any questions. Members may also email Kristen Boniface, Chicago Area Sales Manager for McKesson, at Kristen.Boniface@McKesson.com
We will continue to provide updates as we receive them. We wish all of our members and their patients the best during this challenging time!
*source: https://www.mcknights.com/news/cms-to-offer-point-of-care-covid-19-tests-at-nursing-homes/
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