“The patients here ask about the treatment by name. They’ve seen the crisp, alluring ads on TV and heard the soothing spots on the radio: Harvoni, they know, could cure their hepatitis C.
But in this town, carved into the Appalachian mountains, in a state beset by hepatitis C rates seven times the national average, Harvoni and other new hepatitis C drugs remain largely out of reach. Over the past year, only 3 percent of the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries with the disease received treatment.
A major reason is cost, with list prices for some 12-week treatment courses approaching $100,000. But a series of other forces helps explain why Kentucky is struggling to respond to the hepatitis C crisis, including a growing opioid epidemic that is fueling new cases and a changing patient base that is demanding hard choices be made about who gets treatment first.”
Read more at: https://www.statnews.com/2016/11/14/hepatitis-c-cure-kentucky/
Source: StatNews.com – November 14, 2016
