In the United States (U.S.), to contain costs many state Medicaid programs offer specialty health insurance plans for costly conditions such as HIV/AIDS. This study compared service utilization between Florida Medicaid enrollees diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in standard Medicaid managed care plans to enrollees in HIV/AIDS specialty plans. We found lower mean utilization among HIV/AIDS enrollees in specialty plans compared to enrollees with HIV/AIDS in standard MMA plans for all services except inpatient which was approximately the same. While fewer emergency visits is a desired outcome, lower rates of other services may indicate suboptimal management of patients or lower engagement in care among enrollees in HIV/AIDS specialty plans. Continuous monitoring of experiences of patients in HIV/AIDS specialty plans is warranted to determine whether the observed utilization patterns represent better management through reductions in low value care or reduced engagement in care, and whether these utilization patterns persist.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS; Medicaid; managed care; utilization.