November 27, 2024
The Academy Prepares for State Advocacy in 2025
On November 12 and 13, the Academy met with other members of the AIDS United Public Policy Committee to consider the results of the 2024 national election. Noting the changes in the balances of power in the House, the Senate and the White House, committee members shared strategies that will inform our federal policy and advocacy work moving forward. The Academy was instrumental in ensuring that the HIV workforce was added as the newest policy priority for the new 119th Congressional Session.
The Academy’s Public Policy Committee met on November 18 to ensure that each of its steering committees are noting the changes in each state landscape, as the nexus of most health care decisions. In this regard, we will need your expertise in your state context to help inform this work.
As we continue to plan our advocacy strategy for 2025, we are excited to welcome new members to our future policy meetings. At the next meeting, we will consider cabinet appointments for the new administration as well as a variety of new state concerns, including a new Texas law that requires hospitals to note the citizenship status of patients seeking care. For more information, contact chauncey@aahivm.org.
HEALTH POLICY HAPPENINGS
A Call for State Action for PrEP Without Cost Sharing
On Monday, October 21, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance requiring insurers to cover all forms of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) without cost sharing. Private insurance plans must cover all FDA-approved forms of PrEP (oral and injectable) and cannot use medical management techniques to direct individuals to one form of PrEP over others.
State regulators must now ensure that issuers are aware of their new coverage responsibilities. States should initiate communications through their insurance commissioners regarding this no-cost coverage of PrEP and PrEP-related service.
Ideas for State Regulator Action (pulled from the 2024 AIDS Institute PrEP Coverage Policy Report)
- State insurance commissioners who have not yet done so should issue bulletins to plans in their jurisdiction describing their obligation to comply with federal requirements for PrEP.
- State insurance commissioners should proactively ask plans to affirm that they are providing no-cost PrEP coverage, and to share their updated plan documents to ensure that they are providing accurate information to enrollees.
- In states with a state-based Marketplace, state regulators should ensure that there is accurate information about PrEP benefits on their marketplace website.
- State-run health insurance navigator and assister programs should ensure that staff who work in communities with greater risk of HIV – in particular communities of color and LGBTQ communities – educate their clients about the obligation of insurers to cover PrEP and PrEP-related services without cost sharing.
If you would like to ensure that patients in your state have unfettered access to PrEP, contact chauncey@aahivm.org.
Additionally, we are sharing this communications toolkit that will equip health care professionals with resources to promote access to PrEP and help them identify which screenings, counseling interventions and preventive medications are right for patients. You can also access this patient advocacy toolkit.
#SaveHIVFunding Toolkit
PrEP4All has compiled a #SaveHIVFunding Town Hall Toolkit with printable posters to make sure advocacy against the proposed cuts to HIV funding are elevated this historic election cycle.
By showing up to local town halls with policymakers, we can win again. We encourage you to visit the websites of your representatives to see what events are coming up and talk to them about the importance of continuing to fund critical HIV treatment, care and prevention services.
National PrEP Program
Following meetings hosted at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, PrEP4All released top level recommendations in their latest report, The Path Forward for a National PrEP Program: Policy and Implementation Priorities. For more information, contact prep4all.org.
DACA Toolkit for ACA Enrollment
CMS has released a new toolkit to help partners share information with DACA recipients who will be able to enroll in health coverage through the Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace for the first time starting November 1, 2024. DACA recipients who meet the eligibility criteria for coverage will qualify for a 60-day Special Enrollment Period to select and enroll in a health plan through the Marketplace. Eligible DACA recipients who want 2024 coverage should select a plan by November 30, 2024, to have coverage that begins on December 1, 2024. DACA recipients who need 2025 coverage should enroll during Open Enrollment, which runs from November 1, 2024 through January 15, 2025, on HealthCare.gov.
TAKE ACTION
HIV Clinicians Study: Latino Men in the South
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is recruiting HIV clinicians who prescribe ART and have experience caring for young Latino men in the southern U.S. for this study. A better understanding of how patients and clinicians discuss ART regimens can help inform interventions to increase ART adherence in this unique patient population and facilitate HIV eradication. Please share this information study opportunity with your professional networks.
HIV POLICY UPDATE ARCHIVES
