A firestorm of controversy over access to HIV medications and protection against discriminatory insurance practices has been making its way through US district courts for the past 3 years, pitting HIV patients against pharmacy benefits managers and, ostensibly, the healthcare industry itself.
The case, CVS Pharmacy Inc. v. Doe, scheduled for oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in December, is a weighty one for patients with HIV and the practitioners caring for them.
At odds are whether or not mandatory mail-order requirements for specialty medications violate specific provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, both of which prohibit discrimination by programs that receive federal funds.
An amicus brief submitted on October 29 by the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI) of Harvard Law School on behalf of four John Does and a number of medical practitioners and practitioner organizations underscores the degree to which advances in HIV treatment, viral suppression, and care linkage — not to mention the national mandate to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 — might ultimately be affected.
Maryanne Tomazic
"We decided to file the brief at the Supreme Court level because we wanted to make sure that the perspectives of people living with HIV, their providers, and advocates were in the record," Maryanne Tomazic, a clinical instructor at CHLPI, told
