Hepatitis

Comments on updated HIV & hepatitis strategic plans

As a policy and advocacy organization we work to ensure there are the proper policies, programs, and funding to implement the Strategic Plans. We also refer to them in our work with the Congress, media, and the public to help educate them on the strategic plans and national goals included in each of the plans. We use them to measure our progress in meeting the goals. We not only use them to advocate before the Congress but also within government agencies and leadership to hold them accountable to ensure the goals are reached and that proper policies and programs are in place with sufficient funding.

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Comments on 2026 draft letter to issuers in the federally-facilitated exchanges

In our comments we reiterate our profound disappointment with CCIIO and state regulators for not enforcing the strong ACA nondiscrimination patient protections, including a prohibition on adverse tiering in drug formularies and the requirement to cover the drugs included in widely accepted treatment guidelines. We also outline a number of recent examples by insurers, including some new ones, that either CCIIO or states are permitting to operate that do not protect the interests of people living with HIV since they market discriminatory benefit plans designs.

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Senate testimony on FY25 appropriations for HIV and hepatitis programs

Our nation can eliminate both HIV and viral hepatitis, but without investing additional resources to accelerate our efforts, we will continue to fall short of these ambitious goals. Increased investment–and certainly not cuts–in surveillance, education, prevention, and care and treatment will lead to further progress in reducing HIV and viral hepatitis, which include taking a syndemic approach to achieve maximum impact.

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Concerns with Rhode Island Drug Cost Review Commission (S 2719)

Given the important nature of prescription drugs to the life-saving treatment of HIV and hepatitis B, and now the cure of hepatitis C and the prevention of HIV, we have long advocated for affordable access to prescription medications. We applaud your commitment to ensuring that beneficiaries can access and afford the prescription medications that their providers prescribe. While we support and share the committee’s intent to lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers, we believe the proposed Rhode Island Drug Cost Review Commission (S 2719) would neither benefit patients in the long run nor result in reducing patients’ costs.

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Concerns with Rhode Island Drug Cost Review Commission (H 8220)

We believe policymakers should focus on those issues that directly impact patients, such as PBM regulation and reform, standard plan designs with reasonable deductibles and nominal copays, and ensuring copay assistance counts. For example, Rhode Island still allows issuers to implement harmful copay accumulator adjustment policies that permit double-dipping by payers to take copay assistance without crediting beneficiary out-of-pocket costs.

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