State

We would like to express our opposition to Section 2 and concerns with Section 3 of the Joint Favorable Substitute of HB 5040. Section 2 would remove protections for antiretroviral (ARV) medications for the treatment and prevention of HIV from the imposition of prior authorization or step therapy by allowing them to be given “non-preferred” status on Connecticut’s Medicaid Preferred Drug List (PDL). These protections have been in place for over two decades. Section 3 would allow Connecticut to conduct cost-effectiveness reviews of outpatient drugs in Medicaid that could rely on discriminatory measures that devalue patients and require comparisons between U.S. drug prices and those in foreign countries.