Developing the Viral Hepatitis Plan

Public Participation and Input

The Committee’s work was informed by public input gathered during 18 nationwide listening sessions and written comments submitted in response to a notice in the Federal Register. Listening session comments totaled 255 and written public comments were received from 28 respondents (each submission included comments on multiple issues). After deduplication, OIDP received a total of 273 unique comments.

Input was received from a large and diverse group of representatives from state, tribal, territorial, and local governments; researchers; health care providers; community groups; and national and local service providers and advocates who work in viral hepatitis and related fields.

The Steering Committee used that feedback to:

• Shape the goals and objectives in the Viral Hepatitis Plan;
• Ensure that the plan includes information about groups of people who are impacted by Viral Hepatitis, even if there aren’t sufficient data about them at the national level;
• Ensure that language in the plan is inclusive;
• Develop a plan that makes eliminating viral hepatitis-related stigma a priority and addresses discrimination and social determinants of health;
• Weave viral hepatitis prevention and linkage to care into a wide variety of programs in both health care and community settings;
• Integrate viral hepatitis prevention and care into other public health efforts to prevent and treat HIV, sexually transmitted infections, and substance use disorders.

After drafting the Viral Hepatitis Plan, the Steering Committee published a request for public comments on the draft plan in the Federal Register. Twenty-five sets of comments representing 51 organizations/individuals were received and reviewed. This additional feedback was used to revise the draft and develop the final version.

Download the Viral Hepatitis Plan to read more about how it was developed in Appendix A of the plan.