Study Data from Virginia Commonwealth University Provide New Insights into Managed Care (Drive Time To Care and Retention In Hiv Care: Rural-urban Differences Among Medicaid Enrollees In the United States South): Managed Care

2024 OCT 11 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Managed Care. According to news reporting originating from Richmond, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Less than 50% of people with HIV (PWH) in the United States are retained in care, a key step along the HIV care continuum. We examined the impact of geographic access to care on retention in care for urban and rural PWH.”

Funders for this research include National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health, Blick Scholars Program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Virginia Commonwealth University, “We used Medicaid claims and clinician data (Medicaid Analytic eXtract and MAX Provider Characteristics, 2009-2012) for 13 Southern states plus the District of Columbia. We calculated drive time from the enrollees’ ZIP Code Tabulation Area to their usual source of care. We used generalized estimating equations to examine the association between drive time to care >30 min (versus <= 30 min) and retention in care, overall and stratified by rurality. In sensitivity analysis, we examined the definition of retention in care, states included in the analysis, and enrollee- and care-related characteristics. The sample included 49,596 PWH. Overall, the association between drive time >30 min and retention was significant, but small (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.00, 1.01) and was not significant in urban areas; however, the significance and direction of the association differed in sensitivity analysis. In rural areas, driving >30 min to care was associated with 7% higher odds of retention in care (aOR 1.07, 95% CI 1.05, 1.08) and this association remained significant and positive in nearly all sensitivity analyses. For PWH in rural areas, greater drive time is consistently associated with greater retention in care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Disentangling the mechanisms of this relationship is a future research priority.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Drive Time To Care and Retention In Hiv Care: Rural-urban Differences Among Medicaid Enrollees In the United States South. The Journal of Rural Health, 2024. The Journal of Rural Health can be contacted at: Wiley, 111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, NJ, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting April D. Kimmel, Virginia Commonwealth University, School of Public Health, Dept. of Health Policy, 830 East Main St, 4TH Floor, Richmond, VA 23298, United States. Additional authors for this research include Rose S. Bono, Zhongzhe Pan, Jessica S. Kiernan, Bassam Dahman, Daniel E. Nixon, Faye Z. Belgrave and Lindsay Sabik.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12877. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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