Powerful Hepatitis C Notice From U.S. Government Will Expand Access to High Cost Meds

Carmel Shachar, clinical instructor at law at Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, explained the implications of the new guidance notice from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on access to Hepatitis C medications in an opinion piece for TheBodyPRO.com, a leading online resource for health care professionals on HIV/AIDS and related diseases.

Excerpt from article:

“The notice is important for the HIV community not only because of high rates of HIV and HCV co infection in the United States, but also because it strengthens protections around access to high-cost medications, such as those for HIV treatment…

This notice can be a powerful tool in the hands of advocates, who can now remind their state Medicaid programs that they have a clearly articulated responsibility to provide access to HCV medications (as well as other high-cost medications) and that such access can only be restricted by reasonable and medically justifiable criteria.”

Read “Powerful Hepatitis C Notice From U.S. Government Will Expand Access to High Cost Meds” in full here.