Findings in the Area of Hepatitis C Virus Reported from Inova Health System (Treating Medicaid Patients With Hepatitis C: Clinical and Economic…

Findings in the Area of Hepatitis C Virus Reported from Inova Health System (Treating Medicaid Patients With Hepatitis C: Clinical and Economic Impact)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Research findings on Liver Diseases and Conditions - Hepatitis C Virus are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Falls Church, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "To estimate change in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) disease and the economic burden associated with comprehensive treatment of the chronic HCV-infected Medicaid population. Decision-analytic Markov model."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Inova Health System, "Treatment-naive patients with genotype 1 chronic HCV were followed over a lifetime horizon from the third-party payer perspective. Patients entered the model insured under Medicaid and were treated under statespecific restrictions by Metavir fibrosis stage (base case) or all treated (all-patient strategy) with an approved all-oral regimen (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir [LDV/SOF] for 8 weeks or 12 weeks, depending on cirrhosis status, viral load, and statespecific LDV/SOF restrictions). Untreated patients were assumed to age into Medicare at 65 years, where they were treated with LDV/SOF without restriction by fibrotic stage. The sustained virologic response (SVR) rate of the current Medicaid LDV/SOF restriction strategy was 75.2% versus 95.9% if all LDV/SOF-eligible patients were treated under Medicaid. Treating all eligible Medicaid patients with LDV/SOF, regardless of fibrotic stage, was projected to result in 36,752 fewer cases of cirrhosis; 1739 fewer liver transplants; 8169 fewer cases of hepatocellular carcinoma; 16,173 fewer HCV-related deaths; 0.84 additional life-years per patient; and 1.03 additional quality-adjusted life-years per patient. Treating all Medicaid patients with chronic HCV using LDV/SOF resulted in a 39.4% ($ 3.8 billion) savings and decreased the proportion of total costs attributable to downstream costs of care to 18.3%. A 'treat all' strategy in a Medicaid population resulted in superior SVRs, substantial reductions in downstream negative clinical outcomes, and considerable cost savings."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Current restrictive state policies regarding HCV treatment in Medicaid populations must be reassessed in light of these data."

For more information on this research see: Treating Medicaid Patients With Hepatitis C: Clinical and Economic Impact. American Journal of Managed Care, 2017;23(2):107-112,252-211. American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Z. Younossi, Inova Hlth Syst, Betty & Guy Beatty Center Integrated Res, Falls Church, VA, United States. Additional authors for this research include S.C. Gordon, A. Ahmed, D. Dieterich, S. Saab and R. Beckerman.

Keywords for this news article include: Falls Church, Virginia, United States, North and Central America, Digestive System Diseases and Conditions, Infectious Diseases and Conditions, Liver Diseases and Conditions, Flaviviridae Infections, Hepatitis C Virus, Gastroenterology, Health Policy, RNA Viruses, Hepatology, Medicaid, Virology, Viral, Inova Health System.

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