• Ping Du, Jeah Jung, Yamini Kalidindi, Kevin Farrow, Thomas Riley, and Cynthia Whitener.
• Department of Medicine (Drs Du, Riley, and Whitener) Department of Public Health Sciences (Dr Du), and Department of Pharmacy (Dr Farrow), College of Medicine, The Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania; and Department of Health Policy and Administration, College of Health and Human Development, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania (Dr Jung and Ms Kalidindi).
• J Public Health Manag Pract. 2020 Jan 30.

AbstractHepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is common in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The advent of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) has made HCV elimination a realistic goal. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the US Medicare Fee-For-Service claims data and outpatient prescription drug data to assess the HCV DAA initiation and completion among newly diagnosed HIV-HCV-coinfected Medicare patients enrolled in 2014-2016. DAA initiation was defined as filling at least 1 prescription of DAAs during 2014-2016. DAA completion was defined as taking an 8-week or longer DAA treatment course for patients without cirrhosis and a 12-week or longer treatment duration for those with cirrhosis. Among 12 152 HIV-HCV-coinfected Medicare patients, 20.9% received the DAA treatment in 2014-2016. The average time from HCV diagnosis to DAA initiation was 277 days. The overall DAA completion rate was 92% among 2537 patients who used DAAs. Interventions are needed to improve DAA uptake in PLWHA.

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