Washington,
DC December 09, 2005
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Poor
HIV patients in Minnesota who owe the state more than
$500 in cost-sharing payments for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program
could be dumped from the
ADAP if they don’t pay up, say officials from the Minnesota Department of
Human Services, the Minneapolis
Star Tribune reports. Minnesota’s ADAP has about 675 participants, all
of whom are required to pay between
$1 and $3 for each drug they receive through the ADAP. Under ADAP
regulations, drugs must be administered
to patients even if they can’t immediately pay; the co-payment amounts are
tallied up to be paid later. But some
low-income HIVers, who would be forced to spend up to 7% of their monthly
incomes on ADAP medications, have
been unable to pay off their co-payment balances, and the state is taking
steps to cut them from the program.
Health
officials report having already cut three people from the ADAP who
collectively owed the program about
$3,000. Eight other low-income HIV-positive people who collectively owe the
program $4,000 could be cut this
month, DHS assistant commissioner Loren Coleman told the Star Tribune.
The department is working to find
other sources of antiretroviral drugs, such as pharmaceutical company
patient-assistance programs, for those
cut from ADAP, Coleman says.
AIDS
activists blasted the move by the state to eliminate life-saving treatment
for poor HIVers who cannot afford
the co-payments They said that curtailing drug access could lead to serious
health problems for those cut from
the program. “There is a special need to maintain anti-HIV medications,"
Frank Rhame of the Allina Medical
Clinic told the Star Tribune. "When you omit HIV doses, you take a
chance, depending on the circumstances,
of your virus developing resistance." Source (Advocate.com)
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