A California-run AIDS program is experiencing enrollment delays following a contract switch involving the program's enrollment and pharmacy benefits, reports California Healthline.
Here are six things to know.
1. The AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helps tens of thousands of low-income HIV and AIDS patients pay for medications and insurance premiums, is overseen by the California Department of Public Health.
2. Last July, the program switched pharmacy and enrollment contractors, from Oakland, Calif.-based Ramsell Corporation, which had handled both enrollment and pharmacy benefits, to A.J. Boggs & Company to do the enrollment and Magellan Rx Management to provide the pharmacy benefit services, according to the report. Ali Bay, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health, told California Healthline the change was made to reduce administrative fees and drug reimbursement rates.
3. Since then, staffers at APLA Health and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation said patients have been turned away by pharmacies, had to postpone medical procedures and been dropped from the program altogether for no apparent cause, according to the report.
4. Additionally, potential clients and enrollment workers have been forced to send applications by fax, as the online system to enroll applicants was shut down in November after security breaches and is still not up and running, according to the report.
5. AIDS service organizations have written numerous complaint letters, contacted legislators and sent representatives to meet with public health department officials, reports California Healthline. A number of California senators also sent letters to the department insisting that the problems be fixed.
6. Karen Smith, director of the California Department of Public Health, said via a response letter that her agency was primarily concerned with ensuring clients receive "life-saving medications without any disruption in treatment," and that the state is "working diligently to address these concerns as quickly as possible," according to the report. These efforts, the report notes, include the state allowing its pharmacy benefit provider to authorize an emergency, 30-day supply of medications for enrolled patients who encounter obstacles at the pharmacy, as well as trying to resolve the online security issues and to get the enrollment site back up as soon as possible. She said her agency, meanwhile, has shortened the application, streamlined the enrollment process and extended the reenrollment and recertification deadlines for clients, according to the report.
For more on this story, read Anna Gorman's full report in California Healthline.