ViiV’s efforts to remove coverage obstacles in Medicare Part B are “needed to ensure everyone has access [to PrEP],” according to HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute executive director Carl Schmid. “A USPSTF recommendation … and a coverage determination translates into Medicare coverage at no cost for beneficiaries.”
Advocates say that several insurance companies are flouting mandates that grant most commercially insured patients free access to PrEP drugs, which reduce the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99 percent and from injecting drugs by at least 74 percent when taken as prescribed, according to the CDC. “We don’t want to put up any barriers to people accessing PrEP,” said Carl Schmid, executive director at HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “People want to be on PrEP for a reason. They feel they could be vulnerable.”
Two HIV advocacy organizations say that’s especially true for some potential and current patients covered by the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. The North Carolina AIDS Action Network and the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute claim that the insurer is discriminating against patients with HIV or at risk of HIV by charging “enormous out-of-pocket costs for nearly all HIV drugs” in complaints filed last month with the NC Department of Insurance and the Office of Civil Rights at the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
“The increases will help expand HIV programs in the targeted jurisdictions most impacted by HIV,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute in a statement. However, “given that Congress again has not fully funded the initiative and has not provided dedicated funding for a national PrEP program, ending HIV by 2030 will be in serious jeopardy.”
“The increases will help expand HIV programs in the targeted jurisdictions most impacted by HIV,” said Carl Schmid, [the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute’s] executive director. However, “given that Congress again has not fully funded the initiative and has not provided dedicated funding for a national PrEP program, ending HIV by 2030 will be in serious jeopardy.”