3/23 Funder Briefing: HIV Testing & Informed Consent

More than a dozen grantmakers from across seven states took part in the March 23, 2010 funder briefing: HIV Testing and Informed Consent in New York: Where Policy, Community and Funding Intersect. Sponsored by the New York Community Trust, this event provided a forum to discuss how pending legislation surrounding HIV testing and informed consent may impact local communities at-risk and health care providers in New York.

Event Materials:

• Listen to the event recording
• Read the program

View Panelist Resources & Presentations:

Patrick McGovern, President & CEO of Harlem United

• Presentation: Reaching the Undiagnosed

• Resource: The Research Shows...
  
  
• Resource: Opt-Out Testing for Stigmatized Diseases: A Social Psychological Approach to Understanding the Potential Effect of Recommendations for Routine HIV Testing. Young and Monin. Health Psychology, 2009, Vol. 28. No.6. 675-68.1

Catherine Hanssens, Executive Director, Center for HIV Law & Policy

• Presentation: The Public Health Case for Patient-Centered HIV Testing & Care

Dr. Victoria Sharp, Director, HIV Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital

• Presentation: Funder's Briefing presentation.

Tracie Gardner, Director of New York State Policy & Coordinator, Women's Initiative to Stop HIV/AIDS (WISH-New York), Legal Action Center

• Presentation: HIV Testing and Informed Consent: Legislative History, Policy and Issues for Consideration.

• Resource: Side-by-Side comparison of NY State Testing Bills (Legal Action Center).

• Resource: NYCDOHMH STD Clinic Consent Form.

• Resource: Department of Health Informed Consent to Perform HIV Testing form.

Dr. Benjamin Tsoi, Director, HIV Testing, New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

• Presentation: HIV & HIV Testing in NYC

 Sponsored and hosted by:  FCAA would like to thank Len McNally (New York Community Trust) and Jasmine Thomas (Surdna Foundation) for their continued guidance and support of this event.

More on HIV Testing and Informed Consent:

1. New York State enacted Article 27-f of Public Health Law in 1988 to protect the confidentiality and privacy of anyone who has been tested for, exposed to, infected by or treated for HIV or a HIV/AIDS-related illness.  This law requires that a doctor – or anyone else ordering an HIV test – must first have the patient read and sign an “informed consent” form explaining the test and patient’s rights. In addition, both pre- and post-test counseling must be provided to any patients receiving an HIV test.
2. In 2006 the CDC revised their HIV testing recommendations in effort to reduce barriers to HIV testing, and thus, make it a routinized part of general healthcare. While the CDC maintains that: 1) testing must be voluntary, 2) testing must not be conducted without the knowledge of the patient, and 3) obtaining written informed consent is an ethical obligation, the new guidelines go further: “Separate written consent for HIV testing should not be required; general consent for medical care should be considered sufficient to encompass consent for HIV testing...Prevention counseling should not be required with HIV diagnostic testing or as part of HIV screening programs in health-care settings.” According to the CDC, 20 states required separate, signed consent before an HIV test at the time that the 2006 recommendations were issued. As of Oct 2009, 13 of those states have removed the signed consent requirement.  Proposed similar legislation continues to provoke heated debate in the remaining seven states (Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin).
3. Multiple bills are currently pending in New York state that aim to routinize HIV testing in health care settings, with varying differences regarding how the tests are offered (i.e. written informed consent and counseling).