Examined - Coverage of all HCV treatment regimens in state Medicaid fee-for-service programs and managed care organizations

"HCV Next" offers information on a range of liver topics, which include diagnosis, new combination therapies, side effects, drug/drug interaction, guidelines, practice management issues, to name a few.

The following articles appeared in the May/June print edition of HCV NEXT, provided online at Healio.

Table of Contents

Call to Action: Physicians Needed to Alleviate HCV Treatment Restrictions
Robert Greenwald, JD

In our report, Hepatitis C: The State of Medicaid Access, co-written and produced by the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation of Harvard Law School and the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, we examined coverage of all HCV treatment regimens in state Medicaid fee-for-service programs and managed care organizations. What we found is some improvement in treatment access since 2014, but that many Medicaid programs continue to restrict access to HCV treatments using medically unjustifiable requirements....

Editorial
International Liver Congress Offers Continued HCV insight, progress

Sitting among the sessions at the International Liver Congress in Amsterdam, I had the distinct feeling that we are reaching an end to the era of revolutionary change in hepatitis C, but there remained impressive data, engaging debates and ongoing research given to us to better serve our patients. For those of us long involved in this field, we rejoice with our patients, often on a daily basis, and we intend to remain heavily engaged in addressing the remaining issues even as we heed the clarion call to immerse ourselves ever more deeply in the attempts to conquer other prevalent liver diseases...

Meeting News
Global HCV elimination requires changes in prescribing, access, policy

AMSTERDAM — Achieving global elimination of hepatitis C requires actionable plans and changes on many levels of society from allowance of non-specialist prescribing to universal access, a group of experts explained at the International Liver Congress.

Adherence, SVR unaffected by drug use in patients with HCV

AMSTERDAM — Adherence to treatment and subsequent sustained virologic response were unaffected by drug use in a study of patients enrolled in an opioid agonist treatment program, according to a presenter at the International Liver Congress...

The Big Picture
Peer-to-Peer: Take Small Steps to Everyday Advocacy
Stacey Trooskin, MD, PhD

When we started using interferon-free regimens for the first time — for us, it was off-label with simeprevir/sofosbuvir (Olysio, Janssen/Sovaldi, Gilead Sciences) — to treat our many patients with HIV coinfection, we found ourselves restricted by insurance companies...