In response to CMS’ draft National Coverage Determination
(NCD) issued today that would require all Medicare plans to cover, without beneficiary cost-sharing, all forms of PrEP to prevent HIV, including long-acting PrEP, Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute issued the following statement: “Today’s announcement marks a huge step in ensuring Medicare beneficiaries who want to protect themselves against HIV by using either daily oral or long-acting PrEP can do so without cost-sharing. As people are living longer and remain sexually active, it is important that anyone who has a reason to be on PrEP can access it.”
Congressional bills introduced to expand access to PrEP
“We thank the leadership of Sen. Smith, Rep. Schiff, and their 53 colleagues in re-introducing the PrEP Access and Coverage Act,” commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “Passage of these bills will greatly expand access to PrEP for people who have health coverage across all payers and create a national PrEP program that includes community and provider outreach as well as PrEP drugs and associated services for the uninsured. We must address head on the wide disparities in PrEP use and these bills do that.”
25 HIV and Hepatitis organizations file amicus brief to protect preventive services coverage
The HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute and 24 other HIV and hepatitis organizations filed an amicus brief in support of the U.S. government in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, the challenge to the ACA’s preventive services coverage requirement, arguing, “A wholesale invalidation of the coverage requirement for USPSTF’s recommendations would strike a critical, unnecessary, and costly blow to the battle to end HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.”
New CDC HIV data demonstrates importance of federal funding
CDC data released today shows that overall, the nation is on the right trajectory in decreasing the number of new HIV diagnoses with a marked decrease in new cases among young people. At the same time, while usage of PrEP, which are drugs that prevent HIV, significantly increased, it mostly benefited Whites, while the wide disparities in uptake for Blacks, Latinos, and women persisted.
Congress lifts Ending HIV Epidemic initiative funding by $100 million
Congressional appropriators have released the final FY2023 appropriations bill and have increased funding for the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative by $100 million for a total of $613 million, according to the Appropriations Committee. While far short of the $330 million increase proposed in President Biden’s budget, it does provide increases to ramp up domestic HIV testing, prevention, and treatment programs in order to end HIV.