Removing Effective Notice for HIV Testing

As public health experts; public defenders; civil rights, LGBTQ, and immigrants’ organizations; health care providers; and people living with HIV, we write in strong opposition to S.7809/A.8475.

This legislation proposes to eliminate effective notice and consent for an individual who is about to be tested for HIV. It also proposes to remove the requirement that patients be offered the opportunity to anonymously test for HIV, if that is the option that is safest for them. Instead, providers would be permitted to simply notify patients of HIV testing with posted placards in their offices and waiting rooms or buried in the fine print of lengthy consent forms.