Costco, CVS, Enzo push COVID-19 testing toward mass market

Tests for COVID-19 are inching closer to the mass market with warehouse club Costco.com offering an at-home test, pharmacy chain CVS Health expanding testing locations on Long Island, and Manhattan diagnostics company Enzo Biochem Inc. launching a service designed to simplify the physician review process.

Costco is offering an at-home saliva test, sold only through its Costco.com website.

The test, provided by Azova, an Alpine, Utah, telehealth company, requires patients to submit a health assessment but has no physician oversight. Customers who complete their order by 10:30 a.m. Mountain Standard Time are promised next-day delivery.

A video demonstrates how to spit into a vial and package it for delivery to a laboratory. Costco says results are available 24 to 48 hours after the laboratory receives the test kit, for samples sent in the contiguous United States.

The test, which has emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, is sold for $129.99, or $139.99 for a version that includes video observation and guidance.

The Costco site has no provision for insurance review.

Other providers of at-home tests to detect whether someone has an active case of the virus include LabCorp and Vault Health.

CVS, which offers testing at more than 4,100 sites nationwide, requires patients to register at cvs.com. In mid-October, the company added testing sites in Glen Head, Rocky Point, Selden and Smithtown to more than 20 previously on Long Island.

Enzo Biochem says its new GoTestMeNow platform provides physician and insurance coverage review online, after which patients can have a nasal swab specimen collected at its Farmingdale facility.

Kara Cannon, Enzo's chief commercial officer, said patients generally qualify to have the $100 test paid through insurers or government programs.

Additional collection sites are planned for Bay Shore and Plainview. Patients receive results within three days of submission, she said.

Cannon said the program is designed to simplify the testing process for patients who have had difficulty getting appointments with their physicians or don't feel comfortable going to the doctor's office.

"Health care will be moved closer to the patient at home," she said of the efforts to remove stumbling blocks for patients.

Long Islanders also can be tested for the coronavirus at a variety of sites, including hospitals, testing laboratories and walk-in clinics such as ProHealth Urgent Care and CityMD Urgent Care.

Urgent-care clinics generally provide an on-site doctor's review along with the test, but patients who go to their own physician may have to go to a separate site for testing.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises COVID-19 tests for people who have symptoms of the virus, those who have spent 15 minutes or more within six feet of someone with a confirmed case, or someone who has been referred for testing by a health care provider or health department.

In New York State, tests are generally authorized based on a physician's referral or if a patient has symptoms or had contact with someone who tested positive.

Enzo Biochem has about 500 employees, including about 400 on Long Island, Cannon said.

The company has been supplying COVID-19 testing services for several colleges and universities, including Farmingdale State College, New York Institute of Technology and Stony Brook University.

New York State offers a test-site finder at nwsdy.li/COVIDtest.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.