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Original aid was lost to budget reductions

Nearly 1,000 low-income New Jerseyans with HIV/AIDS will be enrolled in a new drug benefit program that will provide free AIDS medications, state Health Commissioner Poonam Alaigh announced Thursday.

Presently, 34,000 residents have the illness, according to Campaign for a Healthier New Jersey.

The new program is specifically designed for approximately 960 people enrolled in the existing Aids Drug Distribution Program (ADDP) who will no longer be eligible as of next Sunday. The eligibility change was part of the Health and Senior Services Department's efforts to address the overall $11 billion 2010-11 state budget shortfall.

Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) said Gov. Chris Christie knew the HIV/AIDS funding was available when he cut the aid from the 2010-11 state budget and unnecessarily worried low-income patients.

Reacting to the announcement, Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen), chair of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee said the Christie administration should also find $7.5 million to restore state aid for family planning.

Alaigh said that the state learned this month that it will receive approximately $5 million in additional rebates recently negotiated from pharmaceutical companies and that — along with newly available federal AIDS grant funding will enable the department to automatically transfer those no longer eligible for the ADDP program into the new program called the Temporary AIDS Supplemental Rebate and Federal Assistance Program.

The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors recently convened a crisis task force which successfully negotiated additional rebates from pharmaceutical companies in response to cost containment efforts that many states were forced to make.

In addition, New Jersey expects to receive a share of a new federal ADDP grant program announced earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"The department faced extremely difficult budget choices and worked continuously to explore every possible option to reverse this reduction and to maintain access,'' Alaigh said. "As a physician, I know how important these life-saving medications are to individuals with HIV and AIDS. New pharmaceutical rebates and federal funds made available after

July 1 enabled us to create this new benefit program to ensure that individuals continue to receive these critical medications."

Alaigh said the transfer from ADDP to the new program "will be virtually seamless.''

"We are very pleased that the pharmaceutical industry could partner with the state of New Jersey to provide critical medications to this vulnerable population,'' Steve Issenman, senior vice president of the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, said. "Private-public partnerships are essential during challenging budgetary times to ensure residents have access to services they need."

These two drug benefit programs will provide life-prolonging medications to 7,700 low-income individuals with no other source of payment for the drugs. The program covers 960 individuals who will receive a wide range of FDA-approved medications for treating individuals with HIV and AIDS. The existing ADDP program will continue to serve 6,740 clients.

A letter mailed Thursday to affected participants explains that they will be able to use the same eligibility number that they are currently using when they fill prescriptions.

In addition to providing medication assistance, the Division of HIV/ AIDS has several other programs that assist individuals with HIV/AIDS with primary health care, insurance premiums and home care services.

New Jersey has publicly funded HIV clinics statewide that provide primary medical care to more than 12,000 people with HIV/AIDS. The Department also covers health insurance premiums for New Jersey residents with HIV or AIDS who can no longer work or that can only work part time under a program called the New Jersey Health Insurance Continuation Program.

Additionally, the department provides funding for a statewide network of licensed and certified home health care agencies that provide comprehensive services to individuals with HIV/AIDS who are living in their homes.

Vitale said, "If the Governor had this problem solved already, then why can't his administration tell me whether the new program will cover the same medications as ADDP and whether new people will be enrolled?

"The fact of the matter is that the governor knew about all these funding sources before he sent 957 letters out kicking people off a program they need in order to stay alive,'' Vitale said. "I am happy to talk to him about wasting paper, but let's start with the 957 letters he now has to send telling these folks they're back on. I have spoken to and e-mailed the administration for months about how these cuts are needless. Now I at least know how to get his attention on an issue."

"One down, one to go,'' Weinberg said of the HIV/AIDS funding restoration. " I am glad that the governor reversed course on cutting essential care for 957 HIV/AIDS patients. I hope he will follow this up by restoring his cut to the 136,000 men and women who rely on New Jersey family planning centers for their health needs.

"It appears this isn't a matter of dollars and cents,'' Weinberg added. "If the governor could find $7.9 million to restore vital medications to people enrolled in the AIDS Drug Distribution Program, certainly he or the treasurer can explain why the $7.5 million we have identified for family planning is unworkable."

— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM