No-Cost Home-Based COVID-19 Testing and Human Services Screening in Montgomery County MD

IN individual households only; not nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, or shelters.

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To access this service, please call the Testing Helpline at 240-777-1755 and be prepared to answer the following questions.

1. Referral category (one or more of the following):
1. Live in geographic areas highly impacted by COVID-19 (20850, 20874, 20877, 20886, 20901, 20902, 20903, 20904, 20906, or 20910)
2. Are members of population groups disproportionally affected by COVID-19
3. Are homebound or facing significant barriers to accessing community COVID-19 testing
4. Have complex or unique household situations in which home-based COVID-19 testing would be more effective than community COVID-19 testing
2. Preferred time window for home visit

• between 10 am - 1 pm OR 1 pm – 4 pm
2. Household Point of Contact First & Last Name
3. Household Point of Contact Phone Number
4. Household Point of Contact Email Address
5. Household Address
6. Language Need(s), if applicable
7. # of Adults (18+ years) in Household
8. # of children (0 – 17 yrs.) in Household
9. Anything else the Rapid Response Team should be aware of (special needs; symptomatic, positive or presumed positive COVID-19 cases to allow team to prepare accordingly; special directions for getting to the home, etc.)

Montgomery County Rapid Response Teams, via a contract with Ready Responders (National Capital Region), PC, will conduct no-cost medical services home visits for COVID-19 testing seven days a week, as scheduled by Montgomery County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS), to improve access to COVID-19 testing and COVID-19 related-medical care for Montgomery County households who:

• Live in geographic areas highly impacted by COVID-19
• as of 7/9/2020: 20850, 20874, 20877, 20886, 20901, 20902, 20903, 20904, 20906, 20910
• Are members of population groups disproportionally affected by COVID-19
• Are homebound or facing significant barriers to accessing community COVID-19 testing
• Have complex or unique household situations in which home-based COVID-19 testing would be more effective than community COVID-19 testing

Ready Responders teams consist of a Health Worker and a Human Services Worker who review and obtain required consent for the medical services home visit from household members during the visit.

If any household member has insurance, insurance information is collected to bill for the telemedicine assessment and COVID-19 test. However, there is no cost to household members for any part of the home visit, regardless of insurance status.

For each household member who provides consent, Ready Responders will

1. Conduct a temperature check and measure vital signs.
2. Link to a Ready Responders medical provider who will conduct a telemedicine assessment.
• The provider name and medical license number will be given as well as instructions on how to obtain a copy of the encounter record for telemedicine services.
3. Administer a self-collected nasal swab COVID-19 test (or a different type of COVID-19 test, if medically needed or a special circumstance) on each household member present that consents to a test.
• A County nurse will call with the COVID-19 test result (positive or negative).  State health department staff may also contact individuals with positive results to provide additional guidance and conduct contact investigations.
4. Conduct a brief human services assessment and, based on results, offer services of a DHHS human services navigator to follow-up with them after the visit.
• Emergency/urgent medical and human services referrals will be provided on-site, such as
• calling 911 for a medical emergency,
• providing emergency food referrals, or
• immediate referral to temporary hotel shelter for those who cannot effectively isolate at home.

Ready Responders have multilingual language capacity via bilingual staff and access to the County Language Line.

Ready Responders medical services home visits collect protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Maryland confidentiality laws. DHHS and Ready Responders cannot disclose information to referring organizations/programs about the visit including telemedicine assessment records or testing status/results.