Federal appeals court says some employers can exclude HIV prep from insurance coverage

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Employers who challenged some federal health insurance requirements cannot be forced to provide no-cost coverage for certain types of preventive care, including HIV prep and some kinds of cancer screenings, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled Friday.

The ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is narrow, applying only to the eight employers who objected to providing the coverage. The conservative court declined to make the ruling apply nationwide.

“While we were predicting the worst, at the moment insurers will still have to cover preventive services, including PrEP, except for the original plaintiffs. That is the good news,” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, said in an email, referring to a common HIV preventative treatment. But, Schmid lamented that the court found that the coverage requirement for HIV prevention was adopted in violation of the Constitution, and that the case is going back to a lower court for resolution of other issues that could further muddy the coverage issue.

The requirements in question were adopted by federal health officials under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare. Challengers raised religious and procedural objections to some of the requirements.

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