Twenty-three percent of Medicaid beneficiaries with hepatitis C received treatment within six months, according to an HHS Office of Inspector General report published Nov. 2.
OIG identified roughly 230,000 Medicaid beneficiaries with the disease in 2023. According to the report, hepatitis C treatment is recommended as early as possible.
Here are six notes from the report:
- The analysis included about 9,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who were only diagnosed with acute hepatitis C, an early infection stage. The treatment rate was 5% for this subset. OIG said hepatitis C drugs had not been directly approved for acute hepatitis C during the review period, which could have contributed to the low treatment rate.
- There was some geographic variation in treatment rates within six months for Medicaid-only beneficiaries, ranging from 7% in Arkansas to 41% in Indiana.
- Gaps also existed with age. Twelve percent of those who were at least 65 got treated in that timeframe, versus 26% of adults 19 to 64 and 15% of children 3 to 18.
- Fourteen percent of those who are dually eligible received treatment within six months, compared to 28% of those only on Medicaid.
- Of the 23% who got treatment within six months, the median time between testing and treatment was 49 days. One-quarter of this population waited for more than 90 days. The median was 53 days for acute-only hepatitis C.
- OIG advised that CMS work to elevate the treatment rates in Medicaid, as well as take steps to boost the rate for dual-eligibles, in particular. CMS agreed with the recommendations.
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