“We commend the Biden-Harris administration for increasing PrEP uptake using all the tools at its disposal. Patient cost-sharing has been a significant barrier for Medicare beneficiaries. With this new NCD, people on Medicare can join those with private insurance who can access PrEP without cost-sharing. Now we have to make sure these policies are properly implemented and enforced,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute.
Twice a Year HIV Prevention Drug May Soon Be Available
The goal now must be to ensure that people who have a reason to be on PrEP are able to access this miracle drug. Thanks to the ACA, insurers must cover PrEP without cost-sharing as a preventive service. Insurers should not be given the choice to cover just daily oral PrEP, particularly given these remarkable results . The Biden-Harris administration should immediately make that clear. To date, they have yet to do that for the first long-acting PrEP drug that new plans now must cover.
Senate appropriators maintain funding for domestic HIV & hepatitis programs
“We sincerely thank Senate Labor HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito and their colleagues for demonstrating their continued commitment to ending HIV in the United States. While working within the confines of an extremely restrictive budget, they crafted a spending bill that prioritizes the domestic response to HIV,” commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “However, given that the House version of the bill includes sizeable funding cuts, program eliminations and divisive policy riders, we realize passage of this spending bill is far from reality. House Republicans must come to the table and support bills, such as this one, that can pass the Congress and be signed by the President.”
63 HIV organizations urge Biden administration to require insurers to cover long-acting PrEP without cost-sharing
“Long-acting PrEP can be the answer to low PrEP uptake, particularly in the communities not using PrEP today. The Biden administration has an opportunity to ensure that people with private insurance can access PrEP now and into the future, free of any cost-sharing, with properly worded guidance to insurers,” commented Carl Schmid, Executive Director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “Poor PrEP uptake among various racial and ethnic groups is an example of failed healthcare decisions of the past. CMS can help correct these inequities by requiring insurers nationwide to cover all FDA-approved PrEP drugs, without burdensome prior authorizations, and begin the vigorous enforcement of ACA protections that has been lacking to date.”
Federal Government Refuses to Enforce Copay Assistance Court Victory, But Moves to Stop Scheme of Classifying Drugs as “Non-Essential Health Benefits”
“This is nonsense: everyone agrees that patients are having trouble affording their prescription drugs, that copay assistance is helping them, and that the plans are pocketing copay assistance without crediting patients, and even though the rule that allowed insurers not to count that assistance has been struck down, our federal government openly refuses to enforce the court ruling,” commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute.