{"id":3415,"date":"2016-07-05T07:26:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T11:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=3415"},"modified":"2016-07-05T07:26:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T11:26:58","slug":"medicaid-private-insurers-begin-to-lift-curbs-on-pricey-hepatitis-c-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=3415","title":{"rendered":"Medicaid, Private Insurers Begin To Lift Curbs On Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Judith Graham for Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n<p>After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C are gaining earlier access to expensive drugs that can cure this condition.<\/p>\n<p>States that limited access to the medications out of concern over sky-high prices have begun to lift those restrictions \u2014 many, under the threat of legal action. And commercial insurers such as Anthem Inc. and United HealthCare are doing the same.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cms.gov\/Newsroom\/MediaReleaseDatabase\/Press-releases\/2016-Press-releases-items\/2016-06-30-2.html\" target=\"_blank\">Massachusetts is the latest state<\/a> to decide that anyone with hepatitis C covered by its Medicaid program will qualify for the newest generation of anti-viral drugs. Previously, managed care plans serving Medicaid members often limited the drugs, with a list price of up to $1,000 a pill or more, to people with advanced liver disease only. <a href=\"http:\/\/khn.org\/news\/medicaid-private-insurers-begin-to-lift-curbs-on-pricey-hepatitis-c-drugs\/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A+First+Edition&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=31289717&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz--1VUa25-Y8BJKIULeIJwLhq7265gBObzKFuAtIxizL7kfIIYQCjfDo0-j0elZCbbt3pznMGaeHxEBz-GK1LmUGtk197g&amp;_hsmi=31289717\" target=\"_blank\">Read article here&#8230;&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\">Kaiser Health News\u00a0is\u00a0a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font: 15px\/1.6 'Open Sans', serif; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899 \" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" alt=\"khn-logo1\" width=\"92\" height=\"48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre><strong>Notice<\/strong>: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Judith Graham for Kaiser Health News) After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-medicaid","category-part-dprescription-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3416,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3415\/revisions\/3416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}