NEW YORK (AP) — Fewer than 1 in 3 people infected with hepatitis C receive expensive treatment that can cure them, according to a U.S. government study released Tuesday.
The report is troubling because it focuses on people with health insurance — the group most likely to be treated for a liver infection, said one expert, Dr. Nora Thero.
Insurance restrictions appear to be part of the reason for the surprisingly low rate. A course of treatment can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but it can eradicate the infection in just a few months.
It’s also possible that not enough primary care doctors are prescribing the drugs, perhaps thinking it should be done by a specialist or dissuaded by the documentation that may be required, experts said.
“It’s a wake-up call that we still have a lot of work to do,” said Terrault, president-elect of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease.
The hepatitis C virus is spread through contact with blood from an infected person. Most Americans become infected by sharing needles used to inject illegal drugs, and the estimated number of new infections is rising amid the current opioid epidemic, officials say. The virus does most of its damage by infecting the liver and can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.
New drugs came on the market in 2014 and annual deaths from hepatitis decreased. The pills cure about 90 percent of people who take them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released a report Tuesday.
The study found that overall, less than a third of people with health insurance received hepatitis C medication within a year of diagnosis. The findings are based on insurance claims for nearly 50,000 US adults under the age of 70.
The study didn’t include people who were uninsured or who hadn’t yet been diagnosed — meaning the proportion of people getting treatment is likely to be even lower, said one study author, Dr. Carolyn Wester of the CDC.
Treatment rates were lowest for patients in state-administered Medicaid plans. Some states require that specialists prescribe the drugs, that patients have liver damage, or that patients first abstain from drugs and alcohol for months.
“Not all insurance is created equal,” Wester said. Such restrictions are inconsistent with prescribing guidelines, she added.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Division is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Division. AP is solely responsible for all content.
Mike Stobe, Associated Press
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