South Carolina officials are looking for federal funds to help cut or even eliminate the state's waiting list for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). About 2,100 South Carolinians are in the program, with more than 200 queued up.
Help could come from $25 million recently made available nationwide by the US Department of Health and Human Services. South Carolina officials have not determined how much is likely to be available to the state.
"We're hoping it will be enough to clear the wait list," said Noreen O'Donnell, Ryan White program manager in the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).
The waiting list is not the only cost-containment measure in South Carolina's ADAP.
Current enrollees who earn up to 300 percent of the poverty level receive drug assistance outright; those earning 300 percent to 550 percent are assessed a graduated copay, O'Donnell said. Effective Aug. 1, the program will not take any new enrollees in the higher income bracket, although existing clients at that level will be allowed to stay in the program.
That change will not affect most current enrollees: About 78 percent of South Carolina's ADAP clients live on less than 200 percent of the poverty level, or $21,660.
Advocates are continuing their efforts to help eligible HIV-positive residents take advantage of pharmaceutical company assistance programs, said Andy Hall, executive director of AID Upstate in Greenville.
"With the economy down, more people are needing assistance, and organizations like AID Upstate become even more stretched with less funds for more people needing more," Hall said.
07/15/10
SOUTH CAROLINA: South Carolina Seeks Federal Funds to Cover Drugs for AIDS Patients
Source: Greenville News:: Liv Osby; Courtesy of the CDC National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention