CHLP, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago Oppose Proposed VA Rule That Would Dilute the Standard of Patient Care for HIV Testing of U.S. Vets (2009)

Last week, a coalition of advocates submitted comments to the Department of Veterans Affairs on their proposal to eliminate patient-centered standards for informed consent for HIV testing in VA facilities around the country. Since the weight of evidence shows that it’s the failure of care providers to offer testing, not modern-day patient protections, that are at the root of low testing rates, advocates urged that the VA instead change its rules so that routinely offering an HIV test to vets is the practice rather than the exception.

For example, New York law requires pre-test and post-test counseling and written proof of consent. As the CDC knows from its close tracking of this initiative, the NY Health and Hospitals Corporation has substantially increased the number of individuals tested for HIV since 2006, beyond even its ambitious target of 150,000 tests per year. New York also doubled the number of identified HIV-positive individuals since 2004. In fact, the CDC reported the most impressive statistics on expanded testing programs not from states without the so-called “barriers” of documented counseling and consent, but from New York—a state that has successfully adapted and streamlined pre-test and post-test counseling, with patient documentation of informed consent, to the needs of individuals presenting for care, while most states with no such patient protections reported only negligible testing increases.

As the comments to the VA point out, “When a government entity proposes to eliminate a patient protection that also can be characterized as a civil and human right, the burden is on the agency to show that the elimination is necessary.” Click here to view the comments.