As Minnesota insurers limit access to hepatitis C drugs, patients chafe

Kelly Krodel thought a miracle had arrived just in time — in a drug that could eliminate the hepatitis C infection she had carried for three decades before it started to wreck her liver.

Turns out, she’s going to have to live with the virus a bit longer. As long as the South St. Paul woman is reasonably healthy, her health insurance won’t pay the drug’s five- or even six-figure cost.

“Now there’s a cure and I can’t even touch it,” she said. “It makes you so angry.”

Krodel is one of a growing number of hepatitis C patients in Minnesota caught in a bind between the exorbitant cost of the year-old medications — Harvoni, Sovaldi and Viekira Pak — and the tight restrictions insurers have used to prevent the drugs from busting their budgets.

Read more...

Minnesota prison inmates sue to gain access to costly hepatitis C medications

Two prisoners have sued the state, highlighting a national dilemma: tax money going for expensive treatments.

Two inmates are suing the ­Minnesota Department of Corrections seeking access to costly drug treatments for hepatitis C, a serious liver condition that in many cases can be cured with a new generation of medications.

Filed in federal court this month, the lawsuit taps into a national debate over how prison systems can afford the costly new drugs, some of which carry a sticker price of $1,000 per pill and $90,000 for the full treatment.

In a written statement, the Corrections Department said that it could not comment on the lawsuit, but added: “It is not true that offenders do not have access to the new ­medications.”

Read more...

Hepatitis C, HIV hits American Indians at high rate in Minnesota

DULUTH, Minn. — The rate of hepatitis C among American Indians in Minnesota is “terrifyingly higher” than for other racial and ethnic groups, a state epidemiologist said on Thursday. The occasion was the Health Department’s annual release of data for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis A, B and C in Minnesota.

The chronic liver disease — a virus that’s often abbreviated as HCV — also is seen at a relatively high rate outside of the Twin Cities metro area, said Kristin Sweet of the Minnesota Department of Health.

“A lot of people think hepatitis C is an urban issue,” Sweet said. “Our data do not hold to that.”

Read more....

USA-Lack of Insurance Bars Some from Hepatitis C Treatment

Survey data from 2001 to 2010 show that lack of insurance kept some people with hepatitis C virus from getting treatment.

Recently, more effective and well-tolerated drugs have been developed to treat hepatitis C, removing many of the discouraging side effects of older drugs. The infection is curable and transmission can be prevented, researchers write in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

But for the more than three million people in the U.S. who have chronic liver disease from hepatitis C, there are still two important barriers to getting treatment, said lead author Dr. Ivo Ditah from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Read more...

Fight on against Hepatitis C in Wisconsin and Minnesota

Superior, WI (NNCNOW.com) -- It's often referred to as a silent killer so Northland health care professionals have come together to learn more about Chronic Hepatitis C.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services an estimated 74,000 people in Wisconsin are infected with Hepatitis C.

On Tuesday in Duluth and Superior, health care professionals learned how to identify patients at risk of Hepatitis C, and how to make appropriate referrals for diagnosis and treatment.

Read more...