2024 Health Meeting - Session 8E: Is Medicare Ready for HIV? 6.25.24 Recording

This presentation seeks to educate SOA attendees on how Medicare provides care for HIV-positive members. HIV is a disease that has occupied a prominent place in the public's view since its initial discovery. Initially a terminal condition for the afflicted population, advances in anti-retroviral pharmaceutical therapies transformed HIV into a chronic condition in the 1990s. As a result, many young adults who acquired the disease in the 1990s and after have been able to live productive, normal lives with life spans approaching average life spans for the non-HIV population. A happy consequence of the successful therapies is that these 1990s HIV-positive younger adults are now beginning to age into the Medicare program. Our ongoing research and presentation endeavors to assess Medicare's success in providing equitable medical care for this unique population. Through our research and presentation, we want to know who these HIV+ Medicare members are, and how their care needs and costs differentiate them from the average Medicare member. Is the HIV+ member poorer than the average Medicare member? Younger? How much more does it cost to provide an HIV+ member with adequate medical care and pharmaceutical therapies? Do out-of-pocket patient costs prevent HIV+ members from accessing the medical care and drugs they need to stay healthy? How do other chronic conditions interact with HIV? How will this emerging cohort of Medicare enrollees change costs at a plan and program level? The aim of our presentation is to begin to tell the story of the HIV+ person in the Medicare program, and cast a spotlight on a historically vulnerable people to ensure that Medicare offers them the same opportunities for care that other Medicare enrollees receive.