In December 2021, President Biden released the latest National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States, which has been applauded for its commitment to addressing structural barriers that have fueled the HIV epidemic and its commitment to ensuring resources go to communities where the need is greatest, especially communities of color and LGBTQ communities. More than ever before, the Strategy focuses attention on increasing LGBTQ-supportive school policies and practices and improving the quality of life of people living with HIV across the lifespan, including encouraging states to modernize their HIV criminalization statutes. The Strategy also highlights opportunities to prevent new infections with more options for people who wish to use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Multiple PrEP options are available, including not only brand-name daily oral medications but also significantly cheaper generic versions of PrEP and the first long-acting injectable PrEP formation. Generic PrEP exposes challenges related to HIV public health messaging and financing, whereas long-acting PrEP faces questions related to issuance coverage and real-world implementation. The PrEP landscape has also changed with the 2019 PrEP recommendation from the US Preventive Services Task Force. This recommendation triggered statutory coverage requirements for most health plans to cover PREP without cost-sharing as a result of preventative care provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the ACA’s preventative care provisions (Kelley v. Becerra) is pending in federal court and could undermine PrEP access. In this workshop, panelists will present the latest policy and legal developments in the federal HIV landscape and discuss opportunities for strategic responses.

Download CLE materials here.