Supermarket chain Publix has reversed
its decision to deny coverage for HIV prevention drug Truvada PrEP.
Publix came under fire after a story
surfaced that it had denied coverage to one of its former employees
in Atlanta.
LGBT rights groups blasted the
company's decision.
“It is not a stretch of the
imagination to think that this could actually be a discriminatory
practice that targets members of the LGBT community for their
sexuality,” Jeff Graham, who's with Georgia Equality, told WSB-TV's
Channel 2 Action News.
Dr. Scott Parry with Intown Primary
Care told the outlet that PrEP is effective at preventing the
transmission of HIV.
“If everyone took PrEP, there would
be no more HIV,” he said. “It's that potent, that strong.”
“If it's true, and there's
discrimination … why am I a going to support Publix if they're
discriminating against gay people?” he
added.
On Tuesday, the Florida-based Publix
announced that it had reconsidered its decision.
“We regularly evaluate what is
covered by our health plan and have made the decision to expand our
health plan's coverage of Truvada to include Pre-exposure Prophylaxis
(PrEP),” the company said in a tweet. “We are working with our
pharmacy benefits manager to implement this change.”
Florida state Rep. Carlos Guillermo
Smith, an openly gay Democrat, met with Publix officials. He said in
a tweet that they would not say whether the decision to deny coverage
of the drug “was based solely on cost or some absurd moral
objection they have to PrEP.”