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ADAP Watch Says 954 HIV-Positive People in 10 States are on Waiting Lists
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[Feb 03, 2006]
The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors on Wednesday released the latest ADAP Watch, which shows that 954 HIV-positive people were on lists in 10 states as of Jan. 18 (NASTAD release, 2/1). ADAPs are federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals. In June 2004, President Bush announced $20 million in one-time funding outside of ADAP, which helped provide medications directly to HIV-positive people living in the 10 states that had waiting lists at that time. Funding for the President's ADAP Initiative technically expired on Sept. 30, 2005, but BioScrip, which administers the program, was issued a no-cost extension that allows the company to provide medications to PAI clients as long as funding is available (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 12/8/05). As of Jan. 18, 118 of the 954 HIV-positive individuals on ADAP waiting lists were enrolled in PAI, which is estimated to run out of funding in March. The remaining 836 individuals on ADAP waiting lists are not covered under PAI, an increase from 647 on Nov. 17, 2005. The 10 states that currently have waiting lists are: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina and West Virginia. Nine states -- Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah -- have implemented other cost-containment strategies. Six states -- Georgia, Louisiana, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee -- and the Northern Mariana Islands territory anticipate the need to implement new or additional cost-containment measures during the 2006 ADAP fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2007 (ADAP Watch, 2/1). Bush during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday called on Congress to increase funding for states to eliminate the waiting lists (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 2/1).
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