1545Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding the Potential Impact of Health Care Reform on HIV-Infected Patients

Background. Public opinion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been divided. Polling of physicians and the general public about knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs towards the ACA has been conducted, but to date, no such studies have targeted HIV-infected patients. We report results of such a survey. Methods. Sequential adult HIV-infected patients attending the University of Nebraska Medical Center HIV clinic between November 18, 2013 and March 31, 2014 were surveyed for demographics, knowledge regarding health care reform, and attitudes and beliefs regarding the ACA. Participants were English speaking and completed the surveys alone. A sample size of 371 was selected to allow for the estimation of confidence intervals for proportions with a precision of 5% or smaller. Chi-square tests were performed to assess differences in perception of benefit by patient characteristics and knowledge levels. Results. 406 participants completed the survey. 50% reported full time employment and 50% reported annual income less than $20,000. 21% reported they have or will benefit from healthcare reform. 58% indicated they do not know whether they have/will benefit while 57% indicated they do not have enough information about the ACA to make informed decisions. 37% reported feeling they could not change jobs due to fear of change in health insurance. Four questions assessed patient knowledge of the ACA. Only 3% of participants correctly answered all four while 62% answered only one or zero questions correctly. Those who reported not knowing whether they had benefitted or would benefit from the ACA were significantly less knowledgeable about the ACA than those who reported they had benefitted or would benefit from the ACA (p < 0.001). Conclusion. Very few HIV-infected patients have sufficient knowledge of the ACA and only 21% of patients feel they have benefitted or will benefit from the ACA. Compared to the general public, HIV-infected patients generally have less knowledge regarding the ACA and perceive less overall benefit, despite the fact that many are poised to benefit greatly. Targeted education and outreach are necessary to reduce the knowledge gap and empower HIV-infected patients to better understand and utilize their benefits. Disclosures. All authors: No reported disclosures.