Mandated checkups, knowledge of own health status, and chronic care utilization: The effect of HIV medical evaluation mandates on healthcare quality and expenditure in a US‐single payer system

In an effort to improve military readiness, in 2014 the US Air Force reduced the frequency of mandated HIV medical evaluation visits from every 6 months to every 12 months. We employ this natural experiment using data for 2676 active‐duty Military Health System beneficiaries living with HIV with a d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health economics 2024-01, Vol.33 (1), p.59-81
Main Authors: Topal, Senay, Richard, Patrick, Young, John, Ganesan, Anuradha, Gleeson, Todd, Blaylock, Jason, Okulicz, Jason F., Chu, Xiuping, Agan, Brian K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
behavior
Beneficiaries
Clinical outcomes
health
Health care
Health economics
Health risks
Health services utilization
Health status
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
information
knowledge
Military readiness
Preventive medicine
Quality of care
uncertainty
Visits
Womens health
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Summary:In an effort to improve military readiness, in 2014 the US Air Force reduced the frequency of mandated HIV medical evaluation visits from every 6 months to every 12 months. We employ this natural experiment using data for 2676 active‐duty Military Health System beneficiaries living with HIV with a difference‐in‐differences empirical strategy using the Army, Navy, and Marines as a control group to estimate the causal effect of reducing the frequency of mandated evaluation visits on the quality and cost of medical care for active‐duty military members living with HIV. We find that reducing the frequency of mandated HIV medical evaluation visits reduced the likelihood of regular HIV visits by 23 percentage points but did not affect the likelihood of receiving other preventive care, adhering to HIV therapy, or maintaining viral testing and suppression. The study finds evidence that the recommended level of regular HIV visits may be higher than necessary. The reduction in regular HIV visits was not associated with a similar reduction in the studied quality of care measures, therefore, the effect of alleviating the mandate was overall positive in terms of reducing healthcare utilization without adversely affecting preventive care, HIV therapy, or viral testing and suppression.
ISSN:1057-9230
1099-1050
1099-1050
DOI:10.1002/hec.4761