California's Medi-Cal, a state welfare program serving low-income families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children in foster care, pregnant women, and certain low-income adults, has made it easier for the people they serve to have access to Truvada as PrEP. First, they've eliminated the requirement that patients be tested monthly for HIV; the requirement that patients be provided with condoms was lifted; and the requirement that the patient's doctor has to receive Medi-Cal's permission before writing a prescription.
The decisions to lift these requirements came after discussions between Mike Wofford, Medi-Cal's pharmacy policy branch chief, and representatives from AIDS Project Los Angeles, the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and Project Inform. Removing Medi-Cal's required approval made for one less step patients would have to go through to get started on a regimen, and the relaxing of the condom and HIV testing requirements came after the three groups asserted that they were "not necessarily real world conditions."
