Updating the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program For A New Era: Key Issues and Questions for the Future

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is a more than two-decade old federal effort that provides care and services to more than half a million people with and affected by HIV each year. With its current authorization set to expire in September, policymakers are weighing the program’s future at a time when scientific advances in antiretroviral treatment, the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the release of the country’s first comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy have significantly altered the environment in which the program operates. The brief, Updating the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program For A New Era: Key Issues & Questions for the Future, identifies key issues and questions facing the program and explores a range of potential changes for policymakers and others to consider. These fall into four broad, intersecting areas:

• Supporting people with HIV at each stage of the treatment cascade, from diagnosis to viral suppression;
• Building HIV care networks in underserved communities;
• Integrating HIV care expertise into the mainstream health care system effectively and fairly allocating Ryan White resources.