Medicare Begins To Reimburse For HIV Screening

Kaiser Health News reports that Medicare will begin paying for HIV testing. This is really a very important step in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the recognition that older adults engage in behaviors (both sexual and injection drug use) that place them at risk for HIV and other STIs. Whether payment for testing will be sufficient to break down barriers and stigma regarding HIV for older people remains to be seen. This is certainly a step in the right direction.

According to this report, "Last month, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that Medicare would cover HIV screenings for beneficiaries who are at increased risk for HIV, who are pregnant or who request it”. This policy change seems to stop short of the routine screening recommendations that were put in place by the CDC in 2006 for persons between the ages of 13 and 64 years of age.