South Carolina Department of Public Health receives $5.2M Hiv Care Formula Grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration

Ryan white part b supplemental - South Carolina ryan white part b supplemental 2026-2027 grant application abstract South Carolina Department Of Public Health 400 otarre parkway, cayce, sc 2903 contact: leigh oden, (803) 898-0650, [email protected] website address: www.dph.sc.gov the South Carolina (sc) ryan white part b (rwb) program, including the aids drug assistance program (adap), administered by the South Carolina Department Of Public Health (dph), courteously requests rwb supplemental funding under HRSA-26-074 to sustain uninterrupted access to essential core medical and support services, including medication and insurance assistance for vulnerable people living with hiv (plwh) in South Carolina. This request is strategically designed to avert service disruptions, including the imposition of a waiting list or major rwb service cutbacks, during a period of decreased rebates and increasing costs. The requested $9 million will help preserve current levels of core and supportive services, including medication and insurance assistance, while sc updates and modernizes its funding framework and budget for sustainable hiv care in sc without dramatic service disruptions. The sc hiv care system is dependent on rwb and adap for hiv funding and infrastructure. Recent decreases in rebates and increases in adap expenditures have resulted in a projected budget shortfall. Budget reductions of $6.7 million were made to balance the FY2026 budget, mostly impacting rwb core medical and supportive services, with an additional projected $6.4 million budget reduction to be made for FY2027, further impacting the state’s hiv care system. Contributing key factors to the budget scenario include: 1) increasing clients served due to growing client demand tied to increased prevalence, rapid linkage and reengagement, and retention in care efforts; 2) decrease in rebates in FY2025 and federal spending compliance resulting in little flexibility for emerging costs; and 3) increasing adap costs with additional increases anticipated during FY2026 and FY2027. Per the sc epi profile (2025), during the calendar year of 2023, according to the CDC hiv/aids surveillance report, sc ranked 8TH among states, the District Of Columbia, and u.s. Dependent areas with an hiv case rate of 15.6 per 100,000 population. The epidemic is continuing to grow with an average of 65 cases of hiv infection reported each month during 2024. The incidence rate in sc for 2024 is 14.3 per 100,000 population. As of december 31, 2024, there were an estimated 20,684 sc residents living with diagnosed hiv infection (including aids). If awarded, ryan white part b supplemental funding will be deployed for the rwb core and support services and adap direct dispensing and adap insurance assistance programs. The funds will maintain continuity of ryan white part b core and supportive, including adap services without imposing an adap waiting list while sc institutes sustainable funding reforms with rebates. Without this supplemental support, sc foresees service reductions that would jeopardize care retention, viral suppression, and the overall public health gains achieved over the last decade that would take years to rebuild.