UNITED STATES: Lambda Legal Files Letter for Clear HIV- Transplant Policies

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

UNITED STATES: Lambda Legal Files Letter for Clear HIV- Transplant Policies

AIDS Policy and Law (12.17.04) - Thursday, December 30, 2004

Lambda Legal is asking the nation's largest health insurance providers to release their policies on covering lifesaving organ transplants for patients with HIV. Lambda Legal's HIV Project has worked with a number of people who were denied coverage for transplants because they have HIV, despite more than a decade of scientific and medical research showing that organ transplants for HIV patients are effective and safe. HIV patients, who experience much higher rates of hepatitis C, are often in great need of transplants.

Lambda Legal sent a letter to top health insurance companies Assurant, Aetna, Aflac, Anthem, BlueCare, Cigna, Healthnet, Humana, PacifiCare, United Health, Wellpoint and Wellchoice, asking for copies of their policies on covering transplants for HIV patients.

In two recent cases, Lambda Legal appealed decisions and gained transplant coverage for two HIV patients, citing mainstream medical journal articles that show no evidence of poorer survival among otherwise healthy HIV-positive transplant patients who are on retroviral therapy. The articles said transplantation in HIV patients should not be considered experimental.

"We are determined to get these insurance companies on record so people with HIV know whether they'll be covered when their lives depend on it," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal.
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