CARE Act Planning for Unmet Need

The Ryan White CARE Act, a safety net program first enacted in 1990, provides health and support services to people living with HIV (PLWH) in the U.S. through several Titles. Recipients of CARE Act funds—particularly metropolitan areas and States under Titles I and II, respectively—prioritize and allocate funds to cover unmet service needs. In the 2000 reauthorization of the CARE Act, Title I and II grantees were directed to determine unmet needs for services. This paper describes a process by which the HIV/AIDS Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has assisted grantees in developing tools to make quantitative estimates of the unmet need for HIV primary care services. The process enables grantees to identify underserved populations and implement strategies to bring them into regular primary care. The Care System Assessment Demonstration Project supplements these tools.