ADAP Watch List Updates March 2012

[leatherman]

It's budgeting time in many states, so if you're in a state with an ADAP waiting list, make sure to take a few moments to email or write your State Legislators. Make sure to keep it short and email. Explain what ADAP does, explain how untreated HIV leads to AIDS and costly medical coverage, and explain how HIV treatment keeps people alive and reduces the spread of HIV (by lowering viral load) while allowing people to continue working and continue paying taxes - which continues to fund ADAP.


ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of March 15, 2012
3,840 individuals in 11 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Florida	602	-173
Georgia	1,102	+21
Idaho	9	-4
Louisiana**	386	+3
Montana	6	0
Nebraska	202	12
North Carolina	154	5
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	383	34
Utah	0	0
Virginia	996	-19

ADAP Mar. 15th Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[leatherman]

ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of March 23, 2012
3,557 individuals in 11 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Florida	506	-96
Georgia	887	-215
Idaho	9	0
Louisiana**	378	-8
Montana	6	0
Nebraska	207	+5
North Carolina	161	+7
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	416	+33
Utah	0	0
Virginia	987	-9

ADAP Mar. 23rd Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[leatherman]

ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of March 29, 2012
3,666 individuals in 11 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Florida	607	+101
Georgia	861	-26
Idaho	7	-2
Louisiana**	394	+16
Montana	6	0
Nebraska	217	-10
North Carolina	170	+9
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	440	+24
Utah	0	0
Virginia	964	-23

ADAP Mar. 30th Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[SANJUANDUDE]

can you explain to me how Utah has a waiting list with a ZERO next to it?

[leatherman]

Sure.

Just like Ohio, earlier in the fiscal year, these two states had to open a waiting list and put clients on it. Much later than normal, the Federal government finally distributed the federal ADAP funds to the states this year enabling many states to clear their waiting lists. Sadly while most of the states received enough money to clear their lists, some did not receive enough to also cover the ever increasing amount of new applicants.

For example in SC, where I am, now as the #6 state with highest infection rates, our rate of new diagnoses, and new ADAP applications, is outstripping the projections making the federal budgeted money not enough - especially when the state budget fell millions short of the projection need in the first place. Since last year the state tried to totally defund ADAP, getting partial funding from the state this year IS better than NO funding; but not enough to help everyone that needs ADAP much less all the new people who will need assistance. So our waiting list remains open and in use.

However, Ohio and Utah, with lesser amounts of new applications along with enough state and federal money, have not yet had to place anyone else onto their waiting list. Since it's a complicated state/federal procedure to officially open a waiting list, these two states have left their list "technically" open just in case. So for a while things are ok in Utah, although ADAP there is obviously keeping the system in place for the worst case scenario of having to use it's waiting list.

I do not know the funding issues in Utah, but if numbers of new applicants and funding are similar to last year; by the end of this fiscal year, we should see a number of people once again on the Ohio waiting list, and another large number on the Florida list - perhaps even the collapse of their whole ADAP program, just like last year.

[SANJUANDUDE]

I do see good news here.  I believe it was just a few months ago that the state of Alabama had a waiting list of just under 200 or so.  It appears to be cleared.  Nebraska is sure a surprise.  They didn't have a waiting list at all last year, and now there is 200+ persons on it. 

[leatherman]

Alabama cleared out their list a few months ago at the end of Jan 2012;
while Nebraska started their wait list just 7 months ago in Oct 2011

I do see good news here.

Even though there's still too many people waiting for assistance, there has been a lot of good news this past year. The waiting lists total was nearly 10,000 at the end of last summer (about 8 months ago), and Florida ADAP had totally floundered and dropped everyone from the program altogether! (thankfully, the pharmaceutical companies and Welvista stepped in to help with that situation!)  When the federal and state funding came through a few months ago, nearly every state cleared their waiting list down to 0 -- for a while anyway.

We, the SC HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force, actually plan to make good use of this kind of good news. We're planning an Advocacy Day next week (4/11/12) to visit with all the state Senators and Representatives to give them personalized "Thank You" cards, thanking them for their votes and support in giving SC ADAP $4.6 million dollars recurring funding (for the next four years!! W00t!) and an additional one-time $1 million dollars in funding for this year. This state funding alone just dropped our waiting list from 440 at the end of last month to only 144 starting off April.

Of course, the bad news is that there are still people waiting (3,240 as of April 5th see my newest post with April numbers) and there'll be more people diagnosed with HIV and eligible for ADAP every month, so it seems as if this "waiting list problem" will be with the nation for some time yet.