AIDS Issues Update Blog
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New York State Ethics Panel to Investigate Medicaid Redesign Team
A national civil rights organization has requested that New York State’s ethics commission investigate four Medicaid Redesign Team members for breaching state conflict of interest laws.
The team members, Jeffrey Sachs, Michael Dowling, Kenneth Raske and Dan Sisto, are employed by—or work as consultants for—organizations that stand to benefit directly from the team’s proposal 131. That measure would create a financial windfall for hospitals and health care providers by significantly limiting their responsibility to patients killed or injured due to malpractice.
Sachs is a paid consultant to large hospitals and health care systems; Dowling is the president and CEO of the North Shore LIJ Health System; Raske is the president of the Greater New York Hospital Association; and Sisto is the …
Posted on March 9, 2011 at 5:29 pm
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D.C. Tumbles Backward in Effort to Combat HIV; Mayor Identifies Members of AIDS Task Force
With little more than a year to go before the International AIDS Conference opens in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital is sliding dangerously backward in its effort to combat its local AIDS crisis.
This is the conclusion of the sixth annual report card released today by the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a non-partisan organization that works to solve public policy problems in the D.C. area. For the first time since 2005, the survey shows the city declining in several critical areas.
“The role we’ve tried to play here is to be the constant monitor and watchdog,” said Walter Smith, executive director at D.C. Appleseed, “because sometimes you can’t take the government’s word for everything it’s doing.”
The report …
Posted on March 8, 2011 at 5:37 pm
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Action Alert: Join the Fight to Support the Affordable Care Act and Reject Repeal Efforts
Later this month we will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s most significant expansion of health care coverage ever. But our celebration may be short-lived, as the vital protections and reforms in the new law are under attack by members of Congress who want to repeal or defund the entire bill or strip away key provisions.
What’s at stake? Earlier and expanded access to Medicaid coverage; affordable access to private insurance; the end to private insurer discriminatory practices; investments in innovative approaches to public health and prevention; increased resources for HIV testing; increased access to comprehensive medical home care; and reduced drug costs under Medicare Part D.
Sign on to support the ACA and …
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 2:34 pm
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ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Grows to 6,972
Last week the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs grew to 6,972 people across 11 states.
The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased more than 4,000 percent since August 2009, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. Federal and state governments have reacted with little urgency, however. While President Obama’s 2012 budget allots $105 million in additional dollars to the programs over 2010, it’s clear that the problem will not be solved unless states significantly increase their own contributions to the programs.
To help readers keep tabs on the growing ADAP crisis, we are now posting the ADAP …
Posted on March 7, 2011 at 12:38 pm
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I Do! Three Medicaid Reform Proposals We’d Say Yes To
The Update continues its analysis of the New York State Medicaid reform proposals and how they affect low-income New Yorkers, especially those living with HIV.
While we’ve criticized the reform process and scrutinized a few potentially harmful proposals, we recognize that there are many beneficial ideas in the Medicaid reform package. Among the 79 proposals, for example, are suggestions to expand smoking cessation programs, increase HIV testing and require nursing homes to provide patient-centered palliative care.
Today, we lay out the details of three proposals that would help many of the state’s 4.7 million Medicaid users.
Proposal 1021: Facilitates the co-location of physical health, behavioral health and disability services
What it means: Care providers could use one space to …
Posted on March 3, 2011 at 7:25 pm
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More IAC Trouble: Report Documents Gross Underrepresentation of At-Risk Populations
The International AIDS Conference, the world’s largest meeting of people working to stop the spread of HIV, fails miserably at addressing the challenges faced by groups most impacted by the virus, including men who have sex with men, transgender individuals, sex workers, and drug users.
That is the disturbing bottom line of a report released Thursday by the Global Forum on MSM & HIV.
The audit, which focused on program content at the 2010 Vienna conference, shows that the percentage of all sessions focused exclusively on these groups was a mere 2.6 percent for men who have sex with men; 1.1 percent for transgender people; 3 percent for sex workers; and 4.5 percent for people who use drugs.
…Posted on March 3, 2011 at 6:59 pm
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After Five Drug-User Deaths in Puerto Rico, Activists Demand Change
Spurred by the recent deaths of five drug users who could not access health care, a group of 20 AIDS activists in Fajardo, Puerto Rico protested outside the mayor’s office last week. They demanded local leaders develop critical services for people living with and at risk of HIV.
“The event today passed our expectations,” said Gloria González, director for Proyecto Casa de Ayuda Intermedia al Menesteroso, the advocacy and service organization that planned the protest. “We understand that for being the first time that an event like this has been done, the attendance was really great.”
Roadblocks to health care—including transportation issues—have caused at least five CAIM clients to die in the past year, González said.
Fajardo is a small city …
Posted on March 2, 2011 at 4:33 pm
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Indecent Proposals: Three Medicaid Reforms That Would Harm the Poor
The Update is expanding Monday’s analysis of how proposed Medicaid reforms will impact low-income New Yorkers, especially those living with HIV.
The state’s Medicaid Redesign Team has submitted 79 proposals for overhauling the massive health care program for the poor, and Housing Works has released a document analyzing the 35 that will have the greatest impact on people living with HIV. Of those 35, we support 20—and oppose three (our take on the others depends on their implementation).
In the coming days, the Update blog will focus on particular proposals and explain how they could change the lives of Medicaid users. The proposals will not become policy until the legislature incorporates them into the 2012 budget—leaving health care advocates several weeks …
Posted on March 1, 2011 at 9:07 pm
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