Medicaid patients can now get antiviral Hep-C drugs

News

May 1, 2019 - 10:26 AM

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Medicaid beneficiaries in Kansas infected with Hepatitis C will be able to receive the treatment they need regardless of how far their disease has progressed, according to a settlement.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree on Monday signed the agreement in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on behalf of enrollees in the privatized Medicaid program, also known as KanCare. The lawsuit filed last year challenged a Kansas policy that restricted the expensive treatment using direct-acting antiviral drugs to only the sickest Medicaid beneficiaries.

Without this treatment, a patient’s liver damage grows more severe and the risk of complications from the disease increases, depriving them of a cure, the ACLU had argued in its complaint.

Related
August 1, 2023
May 15, 2023
May 4, 2022
April 14, 2022