Patients-to-policy story: Eliminating hurdles to life saving medication
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Download story, "Eliminating Hurdles to Life Saving Medication"
The moment you’re exposed to the HIV virus, a clock starts ticking. You have 72-hours to begin taking medication that greatly reduces your risk of contracting the virus, and the sooner you start taking it, the more effective it is.
In the second of five stories in our new medical-legal partnership patients-to-policy series, Whitman-Walker Health’s medical-legal partnership worked with insurance companies to remove requirements forcing Post-Exposure Prophylaxis medications to be filled by mail. By doing so, they ensured people who were exposed to the HIV virus could get the medication they needed filled at a local pharmacy within the 72-hour window when the drug can be effective in preventing the transmission of HIV.