United Health Group (UNH), the nation’s largest health insurer, has suddenly ended a controversial policy that restricted access to an HIV prevention drug, which could only be obtained after patients completed enrollment forms asking about high-risk sexual behavior.
Last Friday, more than a dozen AIDS advocacy groups sent a letter accusing the insurer of violating federal law for requiring beneficiaries to disclose whether they had engaged in high-risk homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual behavior. Plan members were required to respond to obtain Truvada, which is also known as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP, a pill sold by Gilead Sciences (GILD). And they had to deal with a United Health mail order pharmacy.
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Truvada is just a combo drug. Why not just get a prescription for the two different drugs if you’ve run out? Hopefully UHC will cover them as separate drugs and your co-pay is not so high. Retail wish Emtricitabine + Tenofovir is about the same price as Truvada ($1500 / 30 pills)