Kansas hepatitis C patients who drink alcohol or stop using their medications could be in trouble, reports The Kansas City Star. A Kansas legislative panel recommended last week that these Hep C patients should lose their Medicaid coverage. The KanCare Oversight Committee also recommended that the state health department use “step therapy.” This is a process that requires Medicaid patients to try cheaper treatments first and receive more expensive treatments only if the other medicines fail.
The practice is currently against the law in Kansas. Sen. Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, suggested the proposals, according to The Wichita Eagle. Republicans on the panel said the state shouldn’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on patients who don’t follow doctor’s orders.
Democrats on the committee voted against the proposal. One called it a “death sentence” for some patients.
