‘The California Department of Public Health has ended its contracts with the Thrive Tribe Foundation and other small non-profits that assist local residents in signing up for financial assistance for their HIV medication.
The CDPH sent a letter on June 17 to those who have signed up for the CDPH Medication Assistance Program, better known as ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) to alert them that henceforth they would have to apply through larger organizations such as AIDS Healthcare Foundation and APLA Health.
The ADAP program has several elements, one of which pays monthly health insurance premiums for lower-income ADAP enrollees and their outpatient medical out-if-pocket costs for HIV-related issues. In the United States, where an HIV medication can cost as much as $39,000 a year (compared to $75 a year in Africa), even those lower-income people with health insurance may need access to programs like ADAP because of the out-of-pocket costs.
It is unclear what other community organizations have had their relationship ended by the CDPH, whose Office of Public Affairs for eight days has continued to say to WEHOville that it is working on a response.
The Thrive Tribe Foundation provides the services through Connection 2 Care, which has about 400 clients. C2C was created by Ted Dempsey, Kevin Mora-Smith, and Chris Villalobos to continue offering services provided by the Thrive Tribe Foundation.
Just curious if Being Alive has been impacted by these cuts? I know they just moved out of their long time West Hollywood offices to space at the Saban Clinic in Hollywood. Yet another local serving non profit that has had to move out of West Hollywood following the likes of Aid For AIDS, PAWS LA, Aids Research Alliance & more. I’ve long hoped that the city would develop low cost office space to house our locally serving non profits. I had thought that the former Aaron Bros. Frame store (city owned) on Santa Monica would have been perfect for… Read more »