HIV+Hep in the News

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Can MISTR Close the Equity Gap in PrEP Uptake?

by | Mar 19, 2024

Said Carl Schmid of HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, which often advocates for the preservation of the 340B program that appears to drive MISTR’s profit model: “I really like MISTR. They are providing a lot of PrEP out there. They make it very easy for people to get, which is what we want, and do it all without having to go into a medical office. And you get no stigma from providers and it’s very sex-positive. It’s really the model to expand PrEP that we’ve been asking for.”

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Patient advocates ask states to enforce co-pay accumulator ruling

by | Mar 18, 2024

“Even though insurers are collecting assistance from drug makers, those sums are not ‘counted’ by the patient’s insurance company, leaving the patient unable to pay for their treatment when the manufacturer assistance ends or the patient attempts to access other healthcare items or services,” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, wrote to state insurance commissioners on Tuesday (March 12). A news release from the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute says that 19 states, DC and Puerto Rico separately have outlawed co-pay accumulators, and pending legislation in Congress would extend that to all states. Advocates are pushing for the HELP Copays Act, which would prohibit the practice nationwide. “Given the known, harmful impact on patients of these programs, including the discontinuation of life-saving therapies, we urge you to act to ensure insurers in your state are in compliance with the law,” Schmid’s letter says.

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When copay assistance backfires on patients

by | Mar 15, 2024

The court decision, Schmid said, essentially overturns a 2021 provision in Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rules that allowed insurers to expand the practice to cover almost any drug. Previous rules from 2020 would now be in effect, said Schmid, and those rules say copay assistance should count toward the deductible for all drugs for which there is no medically appropriate generic alternative available. Even so, billing changes for many insured patients may take a while.

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Here’s what you might have missed in Biden’s budget proposal

by | Mar 12, 2024

HIV/AIDS advocates in particular bristled at the news that HHS and CDC initiatives would receive no increases under this plan and pointed to a national goal—launched by President Trump—to end the nation’s HIV epidemic by 2030. “The reality is that, without serious increases, our nation cannot meet its goals to end the HIV and hepatitis epidemics on time,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute.

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Biden budget again proposes cost-saving hepatitis C program

by | Mar 12, 2024

“While we appreciate the proposed continued funding of domestic HIV and hepatitis programs and acknowledge the legislatively imposed budget constraints and competing priorities, the reality is that, without serious increases, our nation cannot meet its goals to end the HIV and hepatitis epidemics on time,” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in the news release. Schmid told Inside Health Policy details of the program are still needed and that there was no increase for hepatitis C programming at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the proposed budget.

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