{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/as-nation-grapples-with-covid-19-surge-warren-smith-release-their-findings-on-national-testing-capacity-and-pediatric-testing-availability", "As Nation Grapples With COVID-19 Surge, Warren, Smith Release Their Findings on National Testing Capacity and Pediatric Testing Availability", "2020-12-09", "2020", "2020-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 09, 2020\n\t\t\t As Nation Grapples With COVID-19 Surge, Warren, Smith Release Their Findings on National Testing Capacity and Pediatric Testing Availability \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t \"Our findings reveal significant gaps in COVID-19 testing capacity, exacerbating the ongoing public health threat. Addressing these problems will require aggressive federal government action.\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Text\r\nof Letter Washington, DC - United States Senators Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), members of the Senate Health, Education,\r\nLabor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to Alex Azar, Secretary of\r\nthe Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) summarizing the findings from\r\ntheir investigation\r\ninto the nation's testing capacity and the availability\r\nof pediatric testing and making recommendations for how the federal\r\ngovernment can improve national testing infrastructure. On August 26, 2020, Senators\r\nWarren and Smith wrote to five of the largest COVID-19 testing laboratories\r\nregarding each company's capacity to process COVID-19 diagnostic tests and\r\ndeliver prompt results. From the responses to these letters, the lawmakers\r\nlearned that lab companies experienced a large surge in COVID-19 diagnostic\r\ntesting needs during the summer surge, straining lab company capacity and\r\nslowing test turnaround times in some cases. Supply shortages hampered their\r\nefforts to develop additional capacity. They also experienced confusion about\r\npayment and reimbursement in different scenarios - for instance, whether\r\ninsurers or the government was responsible for payment when a test was not\r\nconsidered \"medically necessary.\" Furthermore, in response to reports that families were having difficulty\r\nobtaining COVID-19 testing for their young children, on October 7, 2020, Senators\r\nWarren and Smith wrote to the retail providers participating in the HHS\r\nCommunity-Based Testing Sites partnership to ask for information about their\r\npolicies regarding pediatric testing and their plans to expand testing to more\r\nage groups. They found that pediatric testing is becoming more widely\r\navailable, though most retail providers were not currently offering testing for\r\nyoung children. The responses from the retail providers indicated that the\r\nprimary barrier to expanding pediatric testing is the providers' use of\r\n\"self-swab\" test kits, which are difficult for children or their\r\ncaregivers to use. Additionally, independent pharmacies have had difficulty\r\nobtaining the tests needed to participate in the HHS program. Following Senator\r\nWarren and Smith's letters, Walgreens announced that it would begin offering\r\ntesting for children as young as three years old, and Rite Aid announced that\r\nit would offer testing for children as young as 13. \"Together, our findings reveal significant gaps in COVID-19 testing\r\ncapacity, exacerbating the ongoing public health threat. Addressing these\r\nproblems will require aggressive federal government action. We have previously\r\ncalled for dedicated federal funding and a national testing plan to ensure that\r\neveryone who needs a COVID-19 test can access one quickly and easily,\" wrote\r\nthe lawmakers. The Senators now recommend that the federal government: 1.\r\nInvoke the Defense Production Act to\r\nensure that testing labs and providers have adequate access to supplies needed\r\nto conduct tests and to ensure that supplies are reaching communities that are\r\nmost in need; 2.\r\nClarify rules regarding payments for\r\ntesting so that patients and providers can more clearly understand\r\nwhen third-party payers, the government, or other responsible parties should\r\nprovide reimbursement for various types of COVID-19 testing, including for\r\ndiagnostic, screening, or surveillance purposes; 3.\r\nProvide detailed guidance on appropriate\r\nprocedures for testing children and education and outreach to retail\r\nproviders to enable them to offer pediatric testing services more widely; and 4.\r\nWork with independent pharmacies to\r\naddress supply chain issues and provide greater access to tests so\r\nthat more independent providers are able to participate in the HHS\r\nCommunity-Based Testing Sites program. In April, Senators Warren and Smith led 44 of their colleagues calling on\r\nVice President Mike Pence, Head of the White House Coronavirus Taskforce, and\r\nthe Federal Emergency Management Agency to\r\nconduct a national inventory of the COVID-19 diagnostic testing supply,\r\npublicly release data on testing results, and provide a detailed plan and\r\ntimeline for addressing future shortages and gaps in the testing supply chain.\r\nThe Trump administration never took these actions. ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tNext Article\n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/as-nation-grapples-with-covid-19-surge-warren-smith-release-their-findings-on-national-testing-capacity-and-pediatric-testing-availability"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6108518466353416, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}