Health Consumer Alliance Letter to California Department of Health Services

Executive Summary

The HCA commends DHCS for expanding the utilization policy to increase the number of people living with hepatitis C who are eligible for treatment through Medi-Cal. This draft makes several important changes to the previous policy, including recognizing that treatment is often clinically appropriate for people with less-advanced stages of liver disease, reducing the amount of documentation required before treatment may commence, and affirming that a person’s history of substance use or mental illness is not an appropriate reason to deny care. We applaud DHCS for making these significant changes which will dramatically improve the lives and clinical outcomes for thousands of Medi-Cal beneficiaries who are living with hepatitis C. While we appreciate the significant improvements DHCS has made to its policy, we believe that there are still areas where policy changes or clarifications are needed.