HIV Testing among Outpatients with Medicaid and Commercial Insurance.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo assess HIV testing and factors associated with receipt of testing among persons with Medicaid and commercial insurance during 2012.MethodsOutpatient and laboratory claims were analyzed from two databases: all Medicaid claims from six states and all claims from Medicaid health plans from four other states and a large national convenience sample of patients with commercial insurance in the United States. We excluded those aged 64 years, enrolled ResultsDuring 2012, 89,242 of 2,069,536 patients (4.3%) with Medicaid had at least one HIV test, and 850 (1.0%) of those tested received a new HIV diagnosis. Among 27,206,804 patients with commercial insurance, 757,646 (2.8%) had at least one HIV test, and 5,884 (0.8%) of those tested received a new HIV diagnosis. During visits that included an HIV test, 80.2% of Medicaid and 83.0% of commercial insurance claims also included a test or diagnosis for a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and/or Hepatitis B or C virus at the same visit.ConclusionsHIV testing primarily took place concurrently with screening or diagnoses for STIs or Hepatitis B or C. We found little evidence to suggest routine screening for HIV infection was widespread.