Governor Signs Bill Requiring Health Plans To Cover HIV Screenings
On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a bill (AB 1894) that requires private health insurers beginning as soon as next year to cover routine HIV screenings, the New York Times reports.
The law will guarantee coverage of HIV testing for 22.19 million insured California residents, according to the academic California Health Benefits Review Program. About 40,000 people in California who are infected with HIV do not know they have the disease, according to the California Office of AIDS.
Last year, the state stopped requiring hospital patients to give written consent prior to an HIV test.
Assembly member Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank), author of AB 1894, said that change and the new guaranteed coverage law will remove barriers to routine testing.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, added that insurance coverage for the $30 HIV test would encourage health care providers to offer patients the screening (Cathcart, New York Times, 10/2).
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