North Carolina Receives Additional Ryan White Funding, Plans To Increase Income Qualification Level for ADAP

North Carolina recently received $6.7 million in additional federal funding under the Ryan White Program reauthorization and will use about half to increase the income eligibility limits for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program, Evelyn Foust, head of HIV/STD Prevention and Care for the state Department of Public Health, said recently, the Raleigh News & Observer reports (Fisher, Raleigh News & Observer, 9/27).

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, 9/25). North Carolina's new eligibility requirements increase the maximum annual income individuals can have to qualify for the program from $20,420 to $25,525. The program's expansion will allow up to 300 more people to qualify for North Carolina's ADAP, the News & Observer reports. As of August, the program was providing no-cost antiretroviral drugs to 2,875 people in the state (Raleigh News & Observer, 9/27).