Planned Parenthood has announced it will stop taking about $60 million in annual federal funding for low-income women's reproductive health services. The organization says it was forced to do this because of a new Trump administration rule that bars recipients of Title X funding from making referrals for abortions, Nicquel Ellis reports for USA Today.
"That loss in federal funding could deliver a heavy blow to already cash-strapped, non-profit clinics that are often the only providers in their communities offering low cost services," particularly in rural areas, Jessie Hellman reports for The Hill.
Title X has provided birth control and other reproductive care to young, poor women for almost 50 years. It serves about 4 million patients every year, most of them black or Hispanic, and distributes $260 million a year in grants to clinics. "The program has helped fill gaps in health care access including cancer screenings, STD testing and annual exams for women who are poor or don't have health insurance. It does not fund abortion care," Ellis reports. "Planned Parenthood has been the largest provider, serving 40% of all Title X patients."
Program participants had to submit statements to the government by Monday saying they would comply with the new rule, which will be enforced starting Sept. 18. "In addition to the ban on abortion referrals by clinics, the new Title X rules include financial separation from facilities that provide abortions, designating abortion counseling as optional instead of standard practice and limiting which staff members can discuss abortion with patients," Ellis reports. "Clinics would have until next March to separate their office space and examination rooms from the physical facilities of providers that offer abortions."
Planned Parenthood is the only Title X recipient in some areas—like the entire state of Utah—and serves a disproportionate amount of the poor in other places, including many rural areas. Alexis McGill Johnson, the acting president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said that if Planned Parenthood facilities are forced to scale back or close, it will be impossible for other health centers to fill the gap, Ellis reports.
Meanwhile, in July CVS Caremark began reimbursing mail-order prescription delivery companies less, including birth-control service Pill Club. Pill Club protests that the rate change threatens its ability to keep operating, Garnet Henderson reports for Vice.
Mail-order services like Pill Club, Nurx, and Pandia Health allow patients to obtain a birth control prescription via virtual consultation with a doctor, then deliver the meds by mail. It's popular in rural areas, especially for women who don't have insurance or have other difficulties accessing reproductive care. "According to Pill Club, 70 percent of its users previously had difficulties obtaining birth control, and 55 percent said they would have to stop taking birth control without Pill Club," Henderson reports.
CVS Caremark is a pharmacy benefits manager: a third-party company that manages prescription benefits on behalf of insurers. It's a subsidiary of CVS Health and cousin to the ubiquitous CVS Pharmacy chain. A CVS Caremark spokesperson confirmed the rate change, but said Pill Club's accusations were "extremely misleading" and that the decision was not specifically aimed at, nor would have any impact on, access to contraceptives, Henderson reports.
Sophia Yen, CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, said small pharmacies (which is essentially what such services are) are threatened because they can't get discounts by buying in huge volumes like the top three or four pharmacy benefit managers can. She also noted that CVS Caremark offers its own mail-order prescription service, and suggested the move might be an attempt to undercut competition, Henderson reports.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2ZeKBDH Rural areas may lose some access to reproductive services - Entrepreneur Generations
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