Hep Free NYC Advocacy Committee – Quarterly Meeting
Via webinar – September 23, 2020 (3 – 5 PM)
Committee Goals: Review current Hep B and C Advocacy initiatives, plan for Hep Free NYC partner involvement and work on strategies to move towards elimination of viral hepatitis.
Attendees listed below
Meeting Notes
Advocacy Committee Needs New Leadership
- Description of current advocacy leadership structure
- Annette Gaudino as lead and supported by Reed Vreeland, Mike Selick
- Core group of advocates (ELF, HCMSG, COPE, and others)
- Seeking new advocacy committee leaders as Annette needs to step down by the end of the calendar year
New York City
- City Council Viral Hepatitis Initiative FY21 budget outcome
- Sustainability planning – developing plan to ask for funds to be baselined
- To avoid annual fight for discretionary funds and threats to article 6 match from NYS
- Precedent exists, IDUHA funding for needle exchanges got baselined and all programs got funded
- Planning for FY22 budget season
- City Council will have new Health Chair
- Strong advocacy is needed to keep and grow the current Viral Hep Initiative
- Sustainability planning – developing plan to ask for funds to be baselined
- NYC Viral Hep Elimination Planning – update
- Will convene working group to review; will send to community members via email and survey tool to allow diverse groups to review and comment
- Will present report at Hep Free NYC coalition meetings
New York State
- NYS Hep C Elimination Campaign – update
- Statewide task force sent recommendations to the Governor; Gov hasn’t taken any action on it yet
- NYS has created a public facing dashboard, access it here.
- Dashboard is intended to track progress towards elimination targets using 2016 as a baseline, and based on surveillance data (not mathematical models)
- NYS Medicaid
- NYS became the 3rd state in the nation along with Louisiana and Washington to remove most prior authorization requirements
- The NYS Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Board (DURB), unanimously voted to recommend removal of prior authorizations for patients for their first hepatitis C direct acting antiviral (DAA) treatment at their meeting in July. This recommendation was confirmed/approved by the NYS Health Commissioner. For more information, see meeting notes (p. 5).
- This will likely be implemented by Fee for Service (FFS) providers quickly
- It will require advocacy efforts directed at the Managed Care Organizations (MCO’s) to confirm implementation. Commercial insurers would require action by the State Insurance Board.
- 340B updates
- Is a federal, not a state program; is often used by FQHC’s, Ryan White and homeless health providers who use the discount received to fund outreach and other services
- Proposed changes by MRT (Medicaid Redesign Team) to cut approx. $2 billion by moving pharmacy benefit from managed care to fee for service (FFS)
- Will result in 25%-50% cuts
- For more info on effort to save the healthcare safety net click here.
- Review sign on letter re: Recommendations to Support Expansion of Hep C Treatment in Opioid Programs in NY.
Federal
- New! CDC Division of Viral Hepatitis 2025 Strategic Plan.
- Public comment period is now open. Comments due October 8th
- Open for public comment! Expand Telehealth Benefits Permanently for Medicare Beneficiaries Beyond the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Also includes proposal to and to establish a new Medicare Part B benefit for opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment services. Proposed rule and instructions for submitting comments are here. Due October 5.
To do
- Join the Hep Free NYC Advocacy Listserv: hep-free-nyc-listserv@googlegroups.com
- Visit the new Advocacy Committee webpage
Meeting planning
- Plan for quarterly meetings
- Save the date for next meeting: Wednesday, December 9, 2020 from 3-5pm
Attendees
- Alecia Charles, SUNY Downstate, charles@downstate.edu
- Anna Mageras, Mount Sinai Medical Center, mageras@mssm.edu
- Annette Gaudino, TAG, gaudino@treatmentactiongroup.org
- Betty Kolod MD, Mount Sinai Health System, bettykolod@gmail.com
- Bruce Glazer, AbbVie, glazer@abbvie.com
- Farah Riazi, Mount Sinai Health System, riazi@mountsinai.org
- Fatima Omarufilo, Montefiore Medical Center, alabaran@montefiore.org
- Fernando Valerio, Community Health Care Networks, fvalerio@chnnyc.org
- Gail Brown, COPE, cope@gmail.com
- James Spellman, Gilead, spellman@gilead.com
- Joy Cambe, Empire Liver Foundation, joycambe@empireliverfoundation.org
- Lilas Kodjo, NYC DOHMH, lkodjo@health.nyc.gov
- Liz Tang, NYC DOHMH, ltang@health.nyc.gov
- Marie Bresnahan, NYC DOHMH, mbresnahan@health.nyc.gov
- Matthew Akiyama, Montefiore Medical Center, makiyama@montefiore.org
- Nirah Johnson, NYC DOHMH, njohnso2@health.nyc.gov
- Paul Lee, Korean Community Services, plee@kcsny.org
- Perla Romero, Alliance’s Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, perla@alliance.nyc
- Reed Vreeland, Housing Works, vreeland@housingworks.org
- Rob Desrouleaux, HCMSG, rdesrouleaux@hepatitiscmsg.org
- Ronni Marks, HCMSG, ronnimarks24@gmail.com
- Sheila Vakharia, Drug Policy Alliance, svakharia@drugpolicy.org
Last Updated on February 16, 2024 by HepFree NYC
Tags: Advocacy Committee
