Easing Medicaid Restrictions Touted for Surge in Hep C Treatment

States that loosened restrictions on who could get new hepatitis C medicines through Medicaid saw big jumps in the numbers of patients treated, a study found.

The research, published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, examined changes in Medicaid prescribing of hepatitis C direct-acting antivirals, or DAAs, from 2015 through 2019 across 39 state Medicaid programs. DAAs like Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Sovaldi can cure hepatitis C in over 90% of patients.

Researchers found states that eased prescribing restrictions—such as only covering patients with advanced liver disease, requiring patients to be sober, and mandating the medicines ...