US health centers that serve disproportionately racial or ethnic minorities, low-income patients, and uninsured are critical for increasing PrEP use among minority populations who have been disproportionately impacted by HIV, according to results published in AIDS. Tanat Chinbunchorn, MD, MPH, and colleagues examined PrEP provision in US health centers, including clinic characteristics, patient populations, and policies related to PrEP prescribing. They found that, in 1,375 health centers that served more than 30 million patients, 79,163 patients were prescribed PrEP. Health centers that did prescribe PrEP had higher numbers of sexual, gender, racial, and ethnic minority patient populations compared with health centers that prescribed no PrEP. A greater proportion of health centers that prescribed PrEP were in high-priority areas designated by the US Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative or in states with Medicaid expansion or public PrEP assistance programs compared with health centers that did not prescribe PrEP. “These findings highlight service gaps and inform future interventions to optimize PrEP implementation and support EHE initiative goals,” Dr. Chinbunchorn and colleagues wrote.
