Minority AIDS Initiative: Consolidation of Fragmented HIV/AIDS Funding Could Reduce Administrative Challenges

What GAO Found

Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) grantees reported providing services similar to the medical services, support services, and HIV testing and prevention services provided with core HIV/AIDS funding, which is provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to grantees. In addition, MAI grantees faced administrative challenges managing HIV/AIDS funding that was fragmented across several grants. Various agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded MAI grants to grantees. The agencies included CDC, HRSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and seven other offices within HHS. The MAI grantees in GAO's sample reported providing mostly support services with their MAI grants, similar to the types of support services grantees provided with core HIV/AIDS funding from CDC and HRSA. These support services included community outreach and education, and staff or provider training. Twenty percent of the grantees also reported providing medical services to their clients. According to the limited data HHS agencies and offices maintain on the demographics of the population served with MAI grants, the majority of recipients of MAI services were from racial and ethnic minority groups, as is also the case with recipients of services provided with core HIV/AIDS funds. MAI grantees faced administrative challenges because the fragmented nature of MAI and core HIV/AIDS funding required them to manage funding from several sources, each of which required them to complete multiple application and reporting requirements. For example, one city received nine HHS grants to provide HIV/AIDS services - six MAI grants and three core HIV/AIDS grants - and for each of these grants, that city had to complete separate administrative requirements. In this case, while HHS is funding all of the services, it is doing so across multiple funding streams, which raises the possibility of inefficiencies and requires unnecessarily duplicative application and reporting requirements of grantees that could otherwise be using their resources to provide needed services. Additionally, according to HRSA officials, these administrative challenges discouraged some grantees from applying for MAI grants. HRSA officials stated that some of the states receiving core HIV/AIDS grants chose not to request MAI grants because the grants' small size did not justify the additional reporting or other administrative requirements that would accompany them.

MAI grantee reports that GAO reviewed, as well as stakeholder organizations GAO interviewed, described a variety of best practices for community outreach and capacity building that at times led to improved client recruitment and improved capacity of community based organizations to serve communities disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. For instance, MAI grantees reported targeting specific communities, broadening outreach strategies, utilizing social media forums, and using various HIV testing strategies as best practices for community outreach that at times led to improved recruitment for HIV testing and other services. Grantees and some of the stakeholders reported that upgrading technology and providing training to grantee staff were the best methods to improve capacity to serve clients.

Why GAO Did This Study

According to CDC data, racial and ethnic minorities in the United States--particularly Blacks/African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos--have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, representing 72 percent of new HIV infections and 74 percent of all AIDS diagnoses in 2011. In addition to core funding programs through CDC and HRSA that are intended to provide services to all qualifying individuals affected by HIV/AIDS, MAI seeks to improve HIV-related health outcomes and reduce health disparities for minority communities through the provision of grant funds. MAI grants are distributed to a variety of entities.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 required GAO to (1) examine the services provided, population served, and administrative challenges faced by MAI grantees, and (2) describe the best practices identified by grantees and other stakeholders for community outreach and capacity building. GAO conducted a review of services reported in fiscal year 2011 MAI grantee annual reports from a generalizable sample of 100 grantees, and interviewed agency officials and other stakeholders. GAO also reviewed grant administrative requirements, and data on MAI grant amounts and populations served.