Here’s a snippet of Mariel Selbovitz, MPH, and Leslie G Selbovitz, MD’s article, “When it comes to effective?HIV?reform, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
A&U magazine gets snaps for covering our favorite topic – the importance of health reform for people with HIV.
Extensive progress in improving and coordinating care for HIV/AIDS patients has been made due to the combined efforts of patients, activists, and researchers. Despite the well intended efforts of federal healthcare reform, we are in an era of fiscal restraint with the message to the American public being that we will need to make sacrifices. There is only so much money to go around, and there is even less when we consider how much of it is borrowed from overseas. So, measures to reduce government spending are on the immediate horizon.
Our success in caring for patients with HIV/AIDS—the baby, in this case—is now at risk because the effort to provide care for all may mean there will be less money for existing programs. Healthcare reform will make the bathtub overflow with unmet financial needs for the increasing numbers of patients requiring healthcare. As the tub is necessarily emptied, those programs that have more funding will be asked to contribute to those that have less. So, the question before us is: Will the progress in HIV/AIDS care fall victim to the impending dilution of available dollars?
To understand the progress made in HIV care, we should look at a recently published paper by the HIV Medicine Association (HVMA) and the Ryan White Medical Providers Coalition (RWMPC). The authors have captured the elements of a comprehensive approach to HIV treatment and care.
These essential components include an appropriate care team that provides comprehensive primary and specialty care along with case management, psychosocial services and alcohol and drug treatment, HIV medical provider expertise, access to an HIV expert, quality improvement, electronic health records, and sustainability through adequate reimbursement, including public health funding. Taken together, the integrated components of medical care for HIV patients defines what is called a “medical home,” which is a model that is felt to be essential to the success of healthcare reform initiatives.
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