Background: Estimating the number of persons tested for HIV in Germany is challenging. HIV testing can be reimbursed by statutory health insurance (SHI) under certain circumstances. This study aimed to use SHI physician claims data to determine the number of persons tested in the outpatient sector.
Methods: The Central Research Institute for Ambulatory Health Care in Germany (Zi) aggregated a dataset of persons tested for HIV among all SHI insurees. Descriptive analysis differentiated between screening and confirmatory HIV tests. Time trends were explored using linear regression. Insurees with confirmatory tests were compared to newly diagnosed HIV (ndHIV) cases.
Results: Between 2010 and 2015, 1.7% of insurees were annually screened by SHI physicians. Screening tests increased significantly between 2010 and 2015. Among persons screened, 82.5% were women and of those 81.2% had a screening test during pregnancy. Confirmatory tests were performed on 16,034 insurees (0.3% with screening test; 51.2% men). A total of 18,446 (82.8% men) ndHIV cases were notified between 2010 and 2015.
Conclusions: For the first time, the number of persons with HIV tests in the SHI sector was estimated. The high number of screened women is due to tests during pregnancy. The higher number of ndHIV cases indicates an unknown number of persons tested at other testing sites.
Keywords: Ambulatory medical care; HIV tests; Health services research; SHI physicians; Secondary data analysis.