Dr Milena Murray on How Insurance Status Plays Into Uptake of Care for HIV

Insured/uninsured status, region, and social determinants of health, such as lack of internet access, can all influence an individual’s ability to access care, stated Milena Murray, PharmD, MSc, BCIDP, AAHIVP, associate professor at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy, who practices at Northwestern Medicine's Infectious Disease Center in Chicago.

Transcript

How can patients newly living with HIV access necessary care resources?

That depends on if they are insured or uninsured and the region that they're located in. So for an uninsured patient, there are a lot of free clinics oftentimes and they might be surprised by finding a free clinic in their area, if it’s maybe not a large city like Chicago. Obviously, we have many free clinics, clinics [that] are available free of cost.

Patients who have insurance can start by looking for a provider within their network; oftentimes, they can see who the provider is, if they're looking for a specific type of provider. So say if it's a transgender individual and they want a clinic specializing in transgender care, they can often look for that.

There are many resources available online to find care. And so it might just be that simple online search. And then we always want to think about, again, those social determinants of health. So somebody doesn't have the internet, what can they do? And so hopefully they could go to a free library or someplace like that where they would be able to then do that internet search to find those resources.