Settlement between prisoners, Department of Correction prompts new Hepatitis C protocol

Boston Globe June 30, 2018 By Danny McDonald A federal judge has approved a settlement between state prisoners who have Hepatitis C and the state’s Department of Correction that overhauls the agency’s protocol for identifying and treating inmates with the disease. Under the terms of the settlement, new DOC prisoners will be offered Hepatitis C […]

Prisoners’ rights group nears deal on hepatitis C tests

March 10, 2018 Boston Herald By O’Ryan Johnson Bay State convicts could soon have better access to hepatitis C tests and treatments after a prisoners’ rights group reached a legal settlement with the Department of Correction. The National Lawyers Guild, along with Prisoners’ Legal Services, sued the Massachusetts Department of Correction for failing to provide hepatitis […]

Massachusetts Department of Correction settles lawsuit on treating inmates with hepatitis C

March 10, 2018 MassLive By Shira Schoenberg The Massachusetts Department of Correction has reached a settlement with prisoners’ rights groups over its medical treatment of prison inmates with hepatitis C. The settlement requires prisoners with the most serious cases of hepatitis C to be treated within 12 months. Prisoners with less serious cases will have […]

More Prison Inmates Get Access to Hepatitis-C Drugs

March 10, 2018 Wall Street Journal By Peter Loftus Massachusetts state prison officials agreed to expand treatment for inmates with hepatitis C, in the first settlement among several class-action lawsuits accusing state prison systems of denying many prisoners access to costly drugs. Drugmakers including Gilead Sciences Inc., AbbVie Inc. and Merck & Co. since 2013 […]

Prisoners, Mass. reach settlement agreement for treatment of hepatitis C

March 10, 2018 The Boston Globe By Katheleen Conti Prisoners in Massachusetts who have hepatitis C could soon be treated more frequently and with more effective, and more expensive, drugs as part of what is believed to be a groundbreaking class-action settlement agreement reached with the Massachusetts Department of Correction. If the agreement, filed in federal […]

With prisoners left out, state’s work on hepatitis C drug access is far from over

Letter to the Editor by PLS Staff Attorney Joel Thompson Boston Globe August 6, 2016 MASSACHUSETTS’ DECISION to lift restrictions on hepatitis C treatment for MassHealth patients is laudable (“Wider access to hep C drugs is humane and pragmatic,” Editorial, July 29), but those and other restrictions remain in place for the more than 1,500 […]