RYAN
WHITE CARE ACT
ANNUAL DATA SUMMARY
Introduction
The Ryan White Comprehensive
AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act provides funding to States,
cities, and public or private nonprofit entities to improve the
quality and availability of care for medically underserved individuals
and families affected by HIV/AIDS. Reflecting the diversity of communities
across the country, CARE Act funds may be used to develop, organize
and deliver an array of medical, health, and social support services
to people living with HIV/AIDS. Within this range of services, the
CARE Act provides financial assistance for services that, otherwise,
would not be available to these vulnerable populations.
Every year, recipients
of CARE Act funds are required to report to the Health Resources
and Services Administrations HIV/AIDS Bureau (HRSA/HAB) how
those funds have been used to provide services to low-income and
underserved individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. The Ryan
White CARE Act Data Report (CADR) is the annual reporting instrument
that must be completed by agencies and organizations receiving funds
to describe: 1) characteristics of their organization; 2) the number
and characteristics of clients they served; 3) the types of services
provided; and 4) the number of clients receiving these services
and the number of client visits by type of service. Agencies/organizations
that provide counseling and testing services report on the number
of individuals receiving these services. In addition, providers
of ambulatory/outpatient medical care provide some information on
the outcomes of their services.
This annual summary
contains five sections describing how CARE Act funds have been used
in communities around the Nation. The document includes data from
2,696 provider agencies/organizations receiving CARE Act funds that
reported CADR data in 2002. These providers received funding from
one or more of the following CARE Act programs: Title I, Title II
(with ADAP reported separately), Title III-EIS, Title IV, and/or
Title IV-Youth.
Given the nature of
the CADR, the specific CARE Act Program (Title I, II, III, IV or
IV-Youth) that funded particular client services can not be determined.
Although service organizations may be funded by multiple CARE Act
programs, these providers are required to complete only one
CADR that includes information on all services provided regardless
of the funding source. Please remember that CADR Sections 1 and
2 report the characteristics of providers and clients, respectively.
By contrast, CADR Sections 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 describe the types
of services provided by CARE Act funded service organizations and
the number of clients receiving these services regardless of the
Ryan White CARE Act funding stream.
The utility of CADR data is limited by duplicated client counts.
CADR data as collected and reported by individual providers are
generally unduplicated. However, since an individual client may
receive services from more than one provider, there is no way of
knowing that the counts of individuals served by one provider are
not also included in the counts of another service provider. Thus,
aggregating provider data to the national level results in duplicate
client counts.
|