Although some HIV/AIDS medications aren’t listed on the Medicare Part D drug plan website, AIDS advocates quoted in a story published in San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter claim that they are still covered by individual prescription plans (ebar.com, 12/13).
According to the Reporter, Medicare’s plan finder is not always up to date and sometimes doesn’t reflect drugs newly approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For example, Isentress (raltegravir), FDA-approved on October 12 and covered by the plan, doesn’t appear on the list.
“Individual private plans are required to cover these drugs,” says Project Inform’s health care advocacy director, Anne Donnelly, in the article. “We actually want to know from folks if they really find a plan where it’s not covered, even if it is a new drug and it doesn’t have protected status, because we still can have some leverage on that.”
Donnelly added that individuals can file an exception to get access to the drugs they need. She reminds people living with HIV that the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) can offer additional help if other problems arise before the December 31 open-enrollment deadline for 2008 coverage.
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I think that it's OK to be angry. I am sometimes—it's natural—we are HIV positive. but I always try to not let myself stay there too long. Let yourself feel you are human. You should not beat yourself up about being angry."
