CANN Hosts 3rd Annual Community Roundtable on Correctional Hepatitis

By: Marcus J. Hopkins, Policy Consultant

Reprinted with Permission from the Community Access National Network (CANN)

On Wednesday, April 17th, the Community Access National Network (CANN) hosted its 3rdAnnual Community Roundtable on Viral Hepatitis in Correctional Settings at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) headquarters in Washington, DC. Their panel included three presenters: yours truly, along with Wayne  Turner (Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program), and Todd Schwartz (National Account Director at Gilead Sciences, Inc.). Each presented touched on some facet of the myriad issues faced by inmates living in state correctional facilities, as well as various research efforts, funding mechanisms, and opportunities for improvement.

I presented on viral hepatitis in Correctional Settings, during which I focused on CANN’s two-year research effort focusing on HIV, Hepatitis B (HBV), and Hepatitis C (HCV) testing protocols in state prisons, as well as the declining per inmate cost of HCV treatments, and the state of HCV-related Class-Action lawsuits winding their ways through various courts.

Since 2017, I have been reaching out to Department of Corrections (DOCs) in every state and the District of Columbia on behalf of both CANN and the ADAP Advocacy Association to determine what are the state protocols for testing: Is testing compulsory (required), upon request, or based upon clinical criteria, is it conducted during or after the intake process, can inmates refuse to be tested, and is testing offered using an Opt-In (“informed consent”) or an Opt-Out (“informed refusal”) model of delivery. This research represents only a handful of national efforts to identify state correctional testing protocols and to determine whether or not these protocols will help the U.S. towards reaching its established goals of reaching elimination of HIV and HCV (both by 2030).

As of March 2019, all but seven states either responded to inquiries or had the protocols publicly posted on their respective states’ DOC websites (only 14 states, including two that responded, publicly post their testing protocols). Our findings determined that, while most states (n=34) do a good job of making HIV testing compulsory, only 11 states require HBV testing, and only 22 require HCV testing (Hopkins, 2019).

What is concerning about these findings is that, in Arizona, Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, and Massachusetts – all areas of the country where Injection Drug Use (IDU) is high, HIV testing is performed only upon request.

For HBV, the testing landscape is, for lack of a better word, “bleak.” Despite having a commercially available vaccine for HBV since 1981 (and recombinant vaccines since 1986), only 50 million adults and 70 million babies in America have received at least one dose of the vaccine since 1982 – roughly 37% of the American population (Immunization Action Coalition, 2017). Because, HBV is transmissible via sexual contact, as well as by IDU, the vaccination recommendations are considerably broad, but because the disease was so rare, physicians in more rural parts of the nation never bothered to vaccinate many Americans. As a result, the U.S. is seeing an increase in new HBV infections in places where the virus was largely absent. With only 11 states requiring HBV testing in state prisons, inmates face a greater risk of encountering this entirely avoidable, yet incurable disease.

For HCV, as the rates of new infections continue to climb, in all ten of the states with the highest rates of new infections, testing is either not compulsory, or there are no protocol data made available.

You can find my report at the following link: Viral Hepatitis in Correctional Settings.

Wayne Turner, Senior Attorney at the National Health Law Program (NHLP), presented on the various ways state Medicaid programs can and cannot be utilized to help cover to cost of treating incarcerated individuals. He discussed the various intricacies of how the Medicaid program defines “inmate” and “incarceration,” as well as issues surrounding eligibility during and after incarceration, linkage to Medicaid during the reentry process, and how Medicaid is structured.

You can find Mr. Turner’s report at the following link: Medicaid, Incarcerated Persons, and Hepatitis C Treatment.

Todd Schwarz, National Account Director at Gilead Sciences, Inc., provided us with an overview of the corrections system, Gilead’s efforts to help with education, HIV and HCV resource location services, education efforts, and statistics related to new infections and prevalence rates within the state correctional healthcare systems.

You can find Mr. Schwartz’s presentation at the following link: Community Roundtable on Linkages to Care for Incarcerated Citizens Living with Hepatitis C – Gilead Focus on Hepatitis C in Corrections.

Contact CANN to learn more.

References:

• Hopkins, M.J. (2019, April 17). Viral Hepatitis in Correctional Settings. Washington, DC: Community Access National Network. Retrieved from: http://www.tiicann.org/urls/2019_CANN_Presentation_1_Hepatitis_Corrections_04-17-19_HOPKINS.pdf
• Immunization Action Coalition. (2017, December). Hepatitis B: Questions and Answers. St. Paul, MN: Immunization Action Coalition: Handouts: Vaccine Index: Hepatitis B. Retrieved from: http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/p4205.pdf
• Schwartz, T. (2019, April 17). Community Roundtable on Linkages to Care for Incarcerated Citizens Living with Hepatitis C – Gilead Focus on Hepatitis C in Corrections. Foster City, CA: Gilead Sciences, Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.tiicann.org/urls/2019_CANN_Presentation_3_Hepatitis_Corrections_04-17-19_SCHWARTZ.pdf
• Turner, W. (2019, April 17). Medicaid, incarcerated persons, and hepatitis C treatment. Washington, DC: National Health Law Program. Retrieved from: http://www.tiicann.org/urls/2019_CANN_Presentation_2_Hepatitis_Corrections_04-17-19_TURNER.pdf

Disclaimer: Guest blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the ADAP Advocacy Association, but rather they provide a neutral platform whereby the author serves to promote open, honest discussion about public health-related issues and updates.