Your Experience is a Gift

For questions about PrEP in general, and for a Chicago/Illinois specific provider listing, visit www.PrEP4love.com.




Thursday, December 5, 2013

[CASE STUDY] The Power of PrEP Advocacy, Achieving Individual and Macro Wins


[We hope this case study inspires us all to take action and demand the healthcare we need and deserve, whether it is access to PrEP or something else.]

Case Study: Getting Truvada as PrEP to those who need and desire it

As part of AIDS Foundation of Chicago's initiative to provide PrEP education and enhance PrEP awareness, it produces a website/blog called My PrEP Experience (right here!) The website provides a host of information and resources for health providers and potential users of PrEP, and catalogues stories submitted by users about their experiences using PrEP.

A university student sent an email to the My PrEP Experience moderators seeking support and advice.He had arrived for his check-up at the student health service center armed with the latest information about PrEP and its appropriate use. As a gay, sexually active man in an urban area with high rates of HIV, he assumed he wouldn’t have a problem getting a prescription because he knew that he was an appropriate candidate for PrEP. However, the primary care physician he saw was under the impression that she could not prescribe it – that the request had to be referred to the university’s infectious disease department.

The doctor told the student she would put a request to the infectious disease (ID) department for an appointment. Later she wrote him an email stating that the ID department will only prescribe PrEP to people in monogamous relationships with HIV-positive partners.

A savvy health customer, the student looked into his insurance coverage and found that it would indeed cover him for PrEP, but his plan restricted him to use his student health service center.

He was stuck....

So, what happens next? Read the rest of this case study for all the details. Spoiler alert - it has a happy ending, and is proof that individual and collective advocacy - community mobilization - gets results.

And please visit the newly revamped PrEPWatch run by AVAC, who, along with other allies across the country, collaborated with us on this specific effort. You will find an an excellent array of informational resources on PrEP, and is must-click.


 

Tags

#TruvadaWhore (2) access (2) advocacy (6) Affordable Care Act (2) AIDS Foundation of Chicago (4) Alan Johnson (1) antiretroviral therapy (10) Atlanta (1) AVAC (1) ball (1) Bangkok (1) Bangkok Tenofovir Study (1) bareback (2) billing codes (1) black gay men (13) black MSM (2) bottom (1) ButtaFlySouL (3) Canada (7) Cape Town (1) CDC (6) Center on Halsted (8) Chicago (18) clinical (2) clinical trial (2) clinician (2) co-pay (4) community forum (7) control (1) CORE Center (1) CROI 2015 (1) Damon L. Jacobs (3) David Dodd (6) demonstration project (1) Derek Brocklehurst (1) doctor (14) drug coverage (3) gay (44) Gilead (9) Give Out Day (1) guidance (2) Gustavo Varela (1) health insurance (24) heterosexual (5) HIV (16) HIV prevention (112) HIV-negative (45) HPTN (1) IDU (1) Illinois (1) injectable PrEP (1) injection drug use (1) Ipergay (1) iPrEx (6) Japan (1) Jared Baeten (1) Jean-Michel Molina (1) Jim Pickett (1) Ken Like Barbie (9) Len Tooley (3) Los Angeles (4) Magpie Suddenly (1) maraviroc (1) Marc-Andre LeBlanc (4) Mark Hubbard (1) Medicaid (1) Mitchell Warren (1) My PrEP Experience (49) Myron Cohen (1) Nashville (1) Next-PrEP (2) Nick Literski (1) Obamacare (2) porn (1) Positively Aware (4) PowerPoint (3) pre-exposure prophylaxis (106) pregnancy (4) PrEP (122) PrEPception (4) prescription (11) Project Inform (3) Project PrEPare (3) Project RSP (7) protection (1) PROUD (1) provider (2) raw sex (1) Raw Sex Just Got Safer (2) receptive (1) relationships (15) research (14) safer sex (89) San Francisco (5) sex (12) sexual health (25) Simon Collins (1) Singapore (2) South Africa (1) Spanish (1) stigma (3) Sybil Hosek (2) talk show (1) tenofovir (1) Tokyo (1) training (2) Truvada (99) Truvada Track (1) USCA2014 (1) video (24)