COVID emergency ending: What it means for you

After more than three years, the COVID-19 public health emergency in the U.S. is ending. The declaration comes a week after the World Health Organization downgraded the global pandemic.

It’s probably been a while since a friend or family member tested positive for COVID or was hospitalized with the virus. Data has been trending downward for months which is why these emergency provisions are being eliminated.

The public health emergency is essentially signaling the end of the pandemic as we have known it for more than three years.

"In general, things are starting to get better," said Dr. Adia Ross, the Chief Medical Officer at Duke Regional Hospital. "We’re back to a new normal. We have COVID -- it’s still endemic -- but now we know to deal with it."

Since the first cases showed up in North Carolina, she has been on the frontline of COVID care at Duke.

"The early days were just feelings of helplessness," she recalls. "Just to see people with that level of suffering... I think it's important as we celebrate this milestone that we all collectively just remember all those people. There are children that became orphans and people that lost their jobs or were permanently disabled."

Many people turned to different forms of assistance as the public health emergency changed the way we were all accessing healthcare in part to save space in hospitals for the sickest patients.

For now, there won't be changes to certain telehealth flexibilities. The public health emergency afforded people opportunities to receive prescriptions for controlled substances via telehealth.

The Food and Drug Administration this week announced it is extending those flexibilities for six months.

But Americans will have to start shelling out for COVID-19 tests and treatments.

Though health insurers will continue to cover tests ordered by a medical provider, many policyholders will now face deductibles and copays as part of that coverage. People will have to start paying for pharmaceutical treatments for Covid-19, including remdesivir, an antiviral drug that is generally delivered intravenously. as well. Some treatments and vaccines will remain free as there's a surplus.

The public health emergency also halted unenrolling people from Medicaid after a three-year period during which states provided continuous enrollment in exchange for enhanced federal funding.

As the public health emergency ends, people’s Medicaid, WIC and Food and Nutrition Services benefits could change.

"On April 1, North Carolina began the recertification process to check the status of all Medicaid recipients and work to minimize health care coverage gaps for families," DHHS officials wrote in a statement regarding the end of the public health emergency.

KFF, which is formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, estimates upwards of about 550,000 North Carolinians will lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding of the continuous enrollment provision.

In addition to policy changes, data collection is being impacted as well. Since home tests have become reliable and readily available, reported case numbers have become increasingly unreliable. With the end of the U.S. public health emergency, doctors and labs will no longer be required to report COVID-19 cases to public health in North Carolina.

State health officials vowed to continue tracking other key metrics like hospitalizations, emergency department visits and testing wastewater for virus particles.