By Crystal Swann
October 26, 2009

The House passed S. 1793, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Extension Act of 2009 by a vote of 408-9 on October 21. The Senate passed an identical bill October 19. The bill now heads to President Obama for his signature.

The House and Senate worked together to create a bipartisan bill that specifically highlights the growing need for services, by calling for a five percent increase in authorization levels for all parts of the Act. It eliminates the sunset provision and creates new incentives to find new cases of HIV infection and link people living with HIV/AIDS to care.

The bill would reauthorize the program for four years through Fiscal Year 2013, and would require states to adopt name-based reporting for patients by 2012. “This bill recognizes that some states’ HIV case reporting systems are not yet fully matured, and continues funding for jurisdictions with HIV surveillance systems that are still transitioning. In recognition of the growing epidemic outside of major urban areas with longstanding epidemics, it is important that the Ryan White program evolves and moves towards determining funding allocations based on valid, reliable HIV surveillance data. The legislation also supports continuing assistance to Transitional Grant Areas,” according to a White House press statement.

While the Ryan White Act also restores a provision that requires hospitals or other patient-receiving medical facilities to notify emergency response personnel (firefighters, paramedics and EMTs) when they may have been exposed to infectious diseases—including HIV/AIDS—while attending, treating, assisting, or transporting a victim. It also includes language that protects cities from any cause of action for damages should a facility or officer of a facility fail to comply with those reporting requirements.