SF Hepatitis C Task ForceMinutes of 6/9/14
Attendance:Absent Members:Guests:
Shirley BargerJim BantaMercedes Azcarate
Ray GoldsteinStephanie CatellaBrian Gonzales
Pauli GrayKat CallowayKristen Wallace
Madeline GriffisMisha Cohen
Theresa HughesPeter Dale
Isaac Jackson
Robin Roth
Jim Stillwell
Committee Meetings Canceled
Only one member from each committee was present, so meetings were not practical.
Upcoming Events—Shirley
The annual SF Juneteenth celebration takes place Saturday, June 14. Location is Fillmore between Turk and Sutter. We will be tabling.
The Bay Area American Indian Two Spirits (BAAITS) may be holding an event on Friday, June 27. They’ will decide within the next week. They would like for us to table, and we hope screening will be available. We are working with Nazbah Tom of the Native American Healing Center on this event and hope to work with them in the future.
Reports—Shirley
Robin, Shirley, and volunteers Mark Twohy and Howard Crawford tabled at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration on May 17. Free HCV testing was right next door at the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness tent. CPMC also offered HCV testing around the corner. SF Hep B Free arranged a press conference in honor of viral hepatitis day, with short speeches by Mark Leno, David Chiu, Eric Mar, Carmen Chu, and Rear Admiral, Assistant Surgeon General Nadine Simons, among others. Lots of people stopped at the TF table; we felt it was a successful outreach.
Shirley participated in a roundtable event “Responding to the Viral Hepatitis Epidemic” in Sacramento at the State Capitol on May 19. California Healthcare Institute (CHI) sponsored the roundtable. Rachel McLean and Fiona Ma were speakers, along with CA legislators Senator Holly Mitchell and Assembly members Dr. Richard Pan and Katcho Achadjian.
On May 23, Robin and Shirley met with Cindy Wu, a specialty pharmacist for Walgreens at 45 Castro (CPMC Davies). Specialty pharmacies offer extra services to patients and providers dealing with complex health conditions and treatments. Cindy started with AIDS drugs and then began dealing with hepatitis C because of co-infected patients. Now with the new treatments, she is also working with those infected with just HCV.
A specialty pharmacist may deal directly with insurance to get certain drugs and therapies approved for a patient. They also may help get co-pay assistance. They work with providers to keep track of patients’ clinical info and to coordinate letters for medical necessity.
Guest Mercedes Azcarate, VP of Business Development at Mission Wellness Pharmacy, a specialty pharmacy, talked about their services for people going on hep C treatment and their providers. Mission Wellness works in association with Los Portales Pharmacy. Mercedes brought along the thorough “Hepatitis C Specialty Pharmacy Prescription Referral Form” they have developed for providers. It includes a checkbox requestingaid enrolling in Prescription Assistance Programs to help cover costs.
Mercedes explained that a patient must go through a provider, but may ask for a particular specialty pharmacy. Specialty pharmacies also arrange proper delivery or convenient pickup location for medications. Mission Neighborhood Health Center typically works with Los Portales.