HIV Testing among Outpatients with Medicaid and Commercial Insurance

To assess HIV testing and factors associated with receipt of testing among persons with Medicaid and commercial insurance during 2012.

Outpatient 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 <13 years and >64 years, enrolled <9 of the 12 months, pregnant females, and previously diagnosed with HIV. We identified patients with new HIV diagnoses that followed (did not precede) the HIV test, using HIV ICD-9 codes. HIV testing percentages were assessed by patient demographics and other tests or diagnoses that occurred during the same visit.

During 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.

HIV 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.