Monday, February 12, 2018

Medicaid Skimps on Hepatitis C Treatment in Many States

Medicaid Skimps on Hepatitis C Treatment in Many States
by Liz Highleyman
Contributing Writer, MedPage Today
"Hepatitis C: The State of Medicaid Access," issued by the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) and the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) at Harvard Law School, evaluated hepatitis C treatment policies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The report shows that 12 states cover treatment only for people with advanced liver fibrosis, 20 states require at least 6 months of abstinence from drug or alcohol use, and nine require treatment to be prescribed by a liver disease specialist, NVHR executive director Ryan Clary reported at the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) annual Liver Meeting in October.

Hepatitis C kills more Americans each year than all other infectious diseases combined, yet more than half of U.S. Medicaid programs continue to impose discriminatory and medically unfounded restrictions on hepatitis C cures," Clary told MedPage Today. "

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