Affordable Care Act Benefits Virginians with HIVIn an important examination of the effect of the Affordable Care Act, a team led by Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health fellow Kate McManus, MD, have determined that low-income Virginians with HIV had better outcomes when enrolled in Affordable Care Act healthcare plans. The study is believed to be the first to compare Affordable Care Act outcomes with the previous standard of care for this vulnerable patient population.
McManus and her team looked at the rates of virologic suppression, the most critical outcome in HIV care, among those enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans and those who received care under the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). When patients achieve virologic suppression, they have little or no virus detectable in their blood, which benefits the patient and helps public health by preventing transmission of the disease. More than 85 percent (88.5 percent) of patients with Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance were found to be in a state of virologic suppression, compared with 78.7 percent of those in ADAP.
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