The legal and ethical issues involved in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing requirements and practice restrictions in the health care context remain uncertain. Hospitals, medical staffs, medical groups, health plans, and individual physician-employers are unsure whether they may or should require HIV testing of health care providers whose duties involve certain invasive procedures. Individual physicians are unsure whether the standard of care requires them to know their HIV status if they perform such procedures. There is similar uncertainty concerning the appropriateness of practice restrictions for physicians and other health care providers who are identified as HIV seropositive.
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