On July 9, 2019, HRSA issued an Information Collection Request (ICR) announcing that it would be embarking on a two year study entitled, “Assessing Care and Health Outcomes Among RWHAP Clients Who Do Not Receive RWHAP-Funded OAHS.”  HRSA stated that the purpose of the study is to “learn about the quality of care and health outcomes among the … 164,000 clients who do not receive directly funded Outpatient Ambulatory Health Services (OAHS) under the RWHAP.”  Comments for this ICR are due by August 8.

HRSA intends to conduct interviews and medical chart reviews at 30 RWHAP–funded provider sites that are not directly funded to deliver OAHS.  HRSA does not consider case management to be an OAHS.  The ICR states that this information will be used to assess HIV care and health outcomes among its non-OAHS clients, determine if and where these clients receive OAHS, identify any unmet HIV care and treatment needs faced by this populations, and develop strategies to better coordinate services between RWHAP-funded and non-funded providers.

It is unclear as to what HRSA’s actual intentions are for collecting this information.  HRSA may be trying to collect information about situations in which an HIV/AIDS patient receives Ryan White funded case management services (or other non-clinical services), and also receives primary care from a non-grantee provider (e.g., a non-grantee private clinic).  HRSA may also be trying to collect information about situations in which an HIV/AIDS patient receives primary care from the case management organization, which is able to fund the primary care through the program income received from the case management services.