Proposal calls for Medicare coverage of HIV screening

A new government proposal calls for Medicare beneficiaries to receive coverage for Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection screening. The Associated Press reports: "The government proposed Wednesday to have Medicare cover tests for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. ... Most cases of HIV infection occur in younger people, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 19 percent of all U.S. residents with AIDS were age 50 or older. ... The Health and Human Services Department said coverage would extend to Medicare beneficiaries who are at increased risk for the infection, including women who are pregnant, as well as beneficiaries of any age who voluntarily request the service" (9/9).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.