Affordable Care Act Preventive Services Mandate Key to Transforming Hepatitis C Treatment

The pending Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services mandate has serious implications for the future of treatment of hepatitis C in the United States.

In an article recently published in Gastro Hep Advances, Michigan Medicine researchers describe two potential futures^[1]: one in which 90% of hepatitis C cases in the United States are cured within five years and another in which the status quo of insufficient screening rates worsen in the absence of the ACA coverage mandate.

Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc. is a pending Supreme Court case challenging the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that health insurance plans cover certain preventive services.  

While the impetus for the case is mandated coverage for PrEP HIV-prevention medication, other preventive services with an A or B rating from the United States Preventive Services Task Force could also no longer be covered.

Michigan Medicine physicians have identified a simple one-time hepatitis C screening that received a B rating in 2020 as a potentially affected service.

Hepatitis C is the leading cause of cirrhosis and certain liver cancers.

Researchers cite one 2022 study that found direct-acting antivirals had saved Medicaid $15 billion in avoided health care costs.

Lok calls hepatitis C a “silent killer” as patients are often unaware of their infection until the point treatment is less effective. 

Screening rates for hepatitis C remain, in the words of the article, “unacceptably low in the U.S.”

Experts fear, however, this opportunity to expand testing and treatment could be lost if the Affordable Care Act’s preventive services mandate is repealed.

Reference

1. https://www.ghadvances.org/article/S2772-5723(25)00109-8/fulltext

(Newswise/PPP)