Legal and insurance issues

It is impossible in this space to address all the legal and social issues that attend the care of HIV-seropositive patients. Considerations of access to care, financing of care, testing for HIV, and confidentiality of test results are, however, among the most important. In general, primary care physicians should be willing to contact hospital attorneys or local AIDS activists when social problems arise. They must also realize that often there will be no clear political or legal prescription and that it will be necessary to consult one's own sense of the ethical practice of medicine.