NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) — Seven health insurance companies have agreed to revise their coverage policies for chronic hepatitis C treatment, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman has announced.
The insurance companies involved are Affinity Health Plan, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, Excellus Health Plan, HealthNow, Independent Health, United Healthcare/Oxford and MVP Health Plan.
With the agreements, almost all New York commercial health plans will cover chronic hepatitis C treatment. Before this, many plans only covered advanced stages of the disease.
“New Yorkers diagnosed with hepatitis C deserve to be treated, and these agreements will vastly improve access to the medications needed to cure their disease,” Schneiderman said. “Hepatitis C is a potentially life-threatening disease and thousands of New Yorkers are diagnosed each year. My office will do everything possible to ensure treatment for hepatitis C is available, so that patients can be cured and we can minimize the spread of the disease to others.”
The health plans involved must implement the changes to their policies within 45 days and notify their members who were previously denied treatment.