PrEP

Insurer adds HIV treatments after discrimination complaints

We are pleased to see the improvements in Medica’s coverage of HIV drugs. While it took a year, with two letters and a great deal of research, we are grateful to the Iowa insurance department for working with Medica on these changes. Though we never received a formal response from the Minnesota insurance department, we assume our c omplaint played a major role in that state as well. Despite the substantial improvements in Medica’s formularies, the issuer still offers substandard coverage and remains an outlier when compared to other issuers on the Iowa and Minnesota Marketplaces, as we have detailed in follow-up letters to regulators in both states.

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Delta failing their employees by restricting access to PrEP drugs

“We are extremely disappointed in Delta Air Lines, which has a substantial employee base who can benefit from PrEP, for failing to comply with the ACA’s preventive services requirements,” commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “The law, along with its implementing regulations, is very clear: health plans must cover all forms of PrEP recommended by the USPSTF without cost-sharing and not restrict access using prior authorizations to favor one form of PrEP recommended by the USPSTF over others. By only favoring generic PrEP, Delta is clearly violating the law.”

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CDC Strongly Recommends New Long-Acting PrEP Drug

We commend the CDC for issuing this recommendation of such a groundbreaking new PrEP option only three months after its approval. The entire world is excited about this PrEP drug that for the first time resulted in zero infections in clinical trials, and was hailed by Science magazine as the 2024 Breakthrough of the Year. Now we must make sure that everyone who wants it is able to access it. This includes people with health insurance who should be able to access it without cost or other barriers in accordance with federal and state coverage requirements. Unfortunately, we are already hearing of payer roadblocks. CVS Health’s pharmacy benefit manager has gone on record that it is not covering the drug, putting this transformative drug out of reach for many who need it. This is why 63 organizations joined us in a HIV community letter sent today to CVS Health President and CEO David Joyner that lays out their obligation to cover it and urges them to reverse this harmful decision immediately.

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From the office of Rep. Maxine Waters: Congresswoman Maxine Waters introduces legislation to prevent the spread of HIV in honor of the U.S. Conference on HIV/AIDS

“While we strongly support the legislation that requires payers to cover PrEP for people who have insurance, ensuring sufficient and stable funding for the CDC so that health departments, community-based organizations and other grantees can implement HIV and hepatitis prevention programs nationwide is also vitally important,” said Carl Schmid, Executive Director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “We commend Congresswoman Waters and her colleagues for introducing these bills and urge the Congress to support them so that we can eventually end HIV and hepatitis in the United States.”

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House Republicans Go Way Beyond President’s Budget by Ending all HIV Prevention & Slash AIDS Care by 20%

This is not a bill for making America healthy again, but a disastrous bill that will reignite HIV in the United States. We urge Congress to reject these reckless cuts. Eliminating all HIV prevention means the end of state and local testing and surveillance programs, educational programs, and linkage to lifesaving care and treatment, along with PrEP. It will translate into an increased number of new HIV infections, which will be costlier to treat in the long run. At a time when we have the tools to prevent HIV, including new long-acting forms of PrEP, we must not abandon the bipartisan progress our nation has made in combatting HIV.

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