We believe the President's HIV initiative is, and will come to be seen as, one of the major public health initiatives of the early 21st century. The President's HIV initiative is a huge opportunity to make an impact on Americans' health and well-being.
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today.
Today, we are announcing the launch of Ready, Set, PrEP, which will expand access to preventive medication for uninsured Americans at risk for HIV.
Ready, Set, PrEP is a major step forward in the President's plan to end the HIV epidemic in America, reaching as many as 200,000 uninsured Americans at risk for HIV each year for the next decade.
President Trump is providing Americans at risk for HIV with free access to tools to protect their health.
We believe the President's HIV initiative is, and will come to be seen as, one of the major public health initiatives of the early 21st century.
The President's HIV initiative is a huge opportunity to make an impact on Americans' health and well-being. We have the tools to stop the spread of HIV in its tracks. Now, it's about execution.
As I've laid out, HHS is delivering on the President's healthcare vision through three particular platforms: reforming financing, delivering higher value care, and tackling particular impactable health challenges. That final platform is where the HIV initiative fits in.
About a year ago, we showed President Trump that the right targeted investments could end the HIV epidemic in America within a decade.
The President seized on the opportunity to make a major public health impact, just as he has done on the opioid epidemic and kidney disease.
The President's HIV initiative, as we laid out earlier this year, has four strategies: diagnose, treat, prevent, and respond.
That means diagnosing all individuals with HIV as early as possible after infection;treating the infection quickly and effectively after diagnosis; preventing new HIV transmissions by using proven interventions; and responding rapidly to detect and contain any growing clusters of infections.
Our work on these four strategies is highly focused: We know that more than half of new HIV infections are occurring in 48 counties, plus D.C. and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In addition, seven states have a substantial rural HIV burden.
Those are the 57 jurisdictions where we're launching the President's initiative. Four jurisdictions have already received awards to start implementation by the end of this year, and every jurisdiction has received funds to develop their plans by the end of this year.
What we're announcing today falls under the third strategy, "prevent," which includes a focus on pre-exposure prophylaxis medication, or PrEP.
According to a new CDC Vital Signs report coming out today, in 2018, only about 18 percent of the 1.2 million people who could benefit from PrEP had a prescription.
Ending the HIV epidemic requires significantly increasing the number of Americans receiving PrEP, by expanding access, lowering costs, and decreasing stigma.
Ready, Set, PrEP is designed to help uninsured patients in particular, by providing them with free access to the PrEP medications through the program HHS is announcing today.
To receive medication through the program, an individual must have no prescription drug coverage, test negative for HIV, and have a valid "on label" prescription for PrEP.
If someone determines with his or her healthcare provider that PrEP makes sense, they can apply online at GetYourPrEP.com; by calling a toll-free number, 855-447-8410; or applying in person at a healthcare provider, such as a community health center.
While HHS will be covering the cost of dispensing medication at first, beginning no later than March 30 this coming year, CVS Health, Walgreens, and Rite Aid will be donating their pharmacy dispensing services to HHS.
Qualified patients will be able to obtain free PrEP medication at these companies' 21,000 pharmacies throughout the U.S., including no-cost delivery via mail. As part of the donation, these companies will also provide patient counseling for the PrEP regimen and take steps to promote adherence, at no cost to the patient.
Appointments to determine whether PrEP is right for a given patient are available at low or no cost from many healthcare providers, including at community health centers.
Although many programs already exist to expand PrEP access and affordability, our program is of a totally different scale: It is a national, comprehensive approach to free PrEP access for the uninsured, which differs from programs that focus on particular areas or on co-pays in particular.
As I mentioned, we know that stigma is a common barrier to PrEP use, and we've made it a priority to end the stigma around PrEP and HIV.
Ready, Set, PrEP will help address stigma by making the medication more accessible and raising rates of PrEP use, helping Americans to take care of themselves and take control of their health.
We'll complement this program with outreach, research, and implementation work for Americans who need PrEP but may find it hard to access in their communities, such as those living in rural areas.
Toward that end, we've secured co-sponsorship agreements to publicize the program and increase awareness of PrEP from Walgreens and Health Mart, a coalition of independent pharmacies.
HHS has been and will be engaging healthcare providers who work directly with communities where many at risk for HIV aren't receiving PrEP, like communities of color, to encourage them to have conversations with their patients about PrEP.
That mindset, "Community by Community," was the theme of this year's World AIDS Day, which we marked on Sunday.
This year, as we work to help Americans living with or at risk for HIV, we have even more reason for hope than ever. We have the right data, the right tools, and the right leadership to end the HIV epidemic, and we are taking action.
Today's announcement is a bold step toward the President's goal of ending the HIV epidemic within the decade, and I look forward to updating you on each of our next steps to come.
