NCJ Number
121971
Journal
ABA Journal Volume: 76 Dated: (January 1990) Pages: 94-96
Date Published
1990
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article examines two recent U.S. Court of Appeals cases litigating the responsibilities of State and the Federal government in paying for AIDS treatment or in accepting liability for involuntary transmission of AIDS.
Abstract
Because the treatment of AIDS averages $140,000 per patient, many look to State or Federal government sources for payment of an AIDS patient's medical bills. Two recent U.S. Court of Appeals decisions indicate that there is no clear cut and consistent policy regarding government's responsibilities to AIDS patients. In Valdiviez v. United States, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a retired serviceman who received an AIDS-contaminated transfusion during heart bypass surgery at a U.S. military hospital was not entitled to compensation under the Federal Tort Claims Act. In Weaver v. Reagan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that Missouri's Medicaid program must pay for azidothymidine (AZT) treatments for those with HIV infection as well as those with more active AIDS infections. Missouri Medicaid regulations limiting AZT to those with histories of pneumocystis carenii pneumonia or if a depressed count of CD4 helper cells in their blood was found to be too restrictive.