A team of researchers from Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, Brown University’s Department of Medicine, Rhode Island’s Miriam Hospital, Treatment Action Group, and Kirby Institute of Australia, has released findings from a nationwide study of Medicaid policies for the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), which affects over 3 million Americans. The study examined reimbursement criteria for sofosbuvir (Sovaldi), a highly effective medication to cure HCV in the overwhelming majority of patients. The article, which was published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, details the coverage restrictions put in place by most Medicaid programs, and calls for policy change to improve access to new life-saving HCV treatment.
“Federal Medicaid law requires coverage of sofosbuvir, yet reimbursement criteria for Medicaid programs effectively cut off access to treatment. Intentional or not, the denial of treatment by the overwhelming majority of states goes against the spirit of the federal law,” said Dr. Lynn E. Taylor of Brown University Department of Medicine, lead author of the study.
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Filed in: Clinical Spotlight, In the News
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