In a recent study, Martin Hoenigl, MD, and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, modelled the hospital costs and revenue of administering universal fourth generation opt-out HIV screening in emergency departments (ED). They reported a net profit for the hospital in the majority of their simulations. The study was published in AIDS Care.
The authors estimated net income for a hospital with a base model that compared annual testing costs and reimbursements. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis was used to consider variables including payer mix, testing costs, and reimbursement rate.
The model included 12,513 electronic records of annual 4th generation HIV tests from an academic medical center in San Diego, California. The payer mix consisted of 37% capitated contracts, 28% commercial payers, 18% Medicare, 9% MediCal, and 8% self-payers.
Researchers stated that the base model showed universal 4th generation HIV screening resulted in a net profit for hospitals and academic hospitals screening in EDs. They reported that the probabilistic sensitivity analysis resulted in a net profit for the hospital in 81.9% of simulations.
“Sensitivity analysis indicated that ED HIV screening results in a net-profit for the majority of simulations, with higher proportions of self-payers being the major predictor of a net loss,” concluded Dr. Hoenigl.
Source: AIDS Care
