New Hepatitis C Treatments: Considerations and Potential Strategies for States

The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) convened an expert roundtable to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by new hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatments and other pharmaceutical therapies known as high-impact drugs.  Such drug treatments share the common characteristics of being more effective than prevailing drug therapies, often resulting in a change in clinical practice that includes treating many more people and being much more expensive. Experts participating in the roundtable included state health care leaders, scientists, national health care experts, subject-matter experts from insurance and pharmaceutical companies, Medicaid and corrections legal experts, and senior staff from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). This paper summarizes the expert roundtable discussion supplemented by NGA Center research to flesh out the background information and strategies discussed.

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