Background
The Special Projects of National Significance Program's Hepatitis C Treatment Expansion Initiative supported organizations implementing focused interventions designed to increase access to and completion of Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment for people also living with HIV. About one quarter of people living with HIV in the U.S. are also infected with HCV. HCV affects about 3.2 million people in the United States and is responsible for approximately 17,000 deaths each year. This initiative evaluated the effectiveness of four different intervention models to deliver HCV treatment among HIV-positive populations and aims to share best practices and lessons learned with Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grant recipients and other HIV medical providers to improve access and quality of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program services for patients. The University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida served as the Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center (ETAC) for the initiative under a four-year cooperative agreement. The USF ETAC conducted the multi-site evaluation and provided technical assistance to the demonstration sites.
Twenty-nine awards were made to organizations in two demonstration site cohorts, each with two-year project periods beginning in 2010 and 2011. Cohort One grant recipients included AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (Milwaukee, WI); Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center (Bronx, NY);Carilion Medical Center (Roanoke, VA); Cambridge Health Alliance (Cambridge, MA); Clarion University of Pennsylvania (Clarion, PA); East Bay AIDS Center (Oakland, CA); Harlem United Community AIDS Center (New York, NY); Inova Health Care Services (Springfield, VA); Kansas City Free Health Clinic (Kansas City, MO); St. Mary Medical Center Foundation (Long Beach, CA); SUNY Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn, NY); University of California, San Francisco; Washington University (St. Louis, MO); and William F. Ryan Community Health Center (New York, NY).
Cohort two grant recipients included AIDS Care Group (Chester, PA); Alta Med Health Services Corporation (Los Angeles, CA); Boston Health Care For The Homeless (Boston, MA); Chase Brexton Health Services (Baltimore, MD); City of Portland, Maine; Cooper Health System (Cherry Hill, NJ); Harlem Hospital Center (New York, NY); Health Delivery, Inc. (Saginaw, MI) Health Services Center (Hobson City, AL); Housing Works (Brooklyn, NY); Howard Brown Health Center (Chicago, IL); Idaho State University (Pocatello, ID); Siouxland Community Health Center (Sioux Falls, IA); St. Hope Foundation (Houston, TX); and St. Luke's Roosevelt Institute for Health Sciences (New York, NY).