West Virginia Eliminates ADAP Waiting List
West Virginia in fall 2006 eliminated the waiting list for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program because of increases in state funds and savings acquired through Medicare Part D, the Charleston Daily Mail reports (Karmasek, Charleston Daily Mail, 1/9). ADAPs are federal- and state-funded programs that provide HIV/AIDS-related medications to low-income, uninsured and underinsured HIV-positive individuals (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/2). According to the Daily Mail, West Virginia was able to eliminate its ADAP waiting list in part because the program requires Medicare Part D funds to be used as the primary form of payment for eligible individuals enrolled in the program. ADAP funding was used as a secondary form of payment for such individuals. "There were some patients that we might have been paying $1,300 for," Jay Adams, HIV care coordinator for the state's Division of Surveillance and Disease Control, said, adding, "Then, after the Medicare Part D, we only had to pay $60 for them. It provided us with significant savings." Funding from the state Legislature also helped West Virginia eliminate its ADAP waiting list. According to the Daily Mail, Adams could not disclose how much the state provided in funds to the program. West Virginia's waiting list was formed in February 2003, and it officially ended in July 2006. People on the waiting list were not removed until late August 2006 and September 2006, according to the Daily Mail. The maximum number of people on the waiting list at one point was 40, and the number of people on the waiting list tended to vary, according to Adams. West Virginia's ADAP also has added six antiretroviral drugs -- including Aptivus and Fuzeon -- to its formulary (Charleston Daily Mail, 1/9).
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