January 30, 2013 Federally Funded Health Centers Fail to
Routinely Test for HIV Seven years after the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended routine HIV tests for
all adolescents and adults, only a fifth of federally funded
safety net health providers are testing all patients between
ages 13 and 64 for HIV, MedPage Today reports. A report from the
Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector
General (OIG) outlined this and other data, such as the fact
that an additional 55 percent of the safety net providers
recommend testing for high-risk patients. Twenty-four percent of
these providers, which offer services to lower-income patients,
offer HIV tests only when patients requested them. A prominent
reason for the lack of widespread testing was a lack of
financial resources, the OIG reports. Out of the more than 8,100
centers funded by the United States Health Resources and
Services Administration, the OIG surveyed 324 health centers
between May 2011 and November 2011 to dete