Note that if you are an employee at Columbia and have not signed on for the Optional Plan, you could encounter difficulties in obtaining the enhanced coverage. For new employees, it is important to note that, if you have received treatment for HIV in the three months prior to employment at Columbia, you are ineligible for disability until 12 months after your hire date. If you are a union employee, check with the Benefits Office or your local union representative for disability-insurance information. Each union offers a different plan. In either case, the blood is drawn at the Health Service and is taken by a volunteer to the City Lab for anonymous testing.
Results are usually back in about two weeks.
Some private physicians also arrange HIV-antibody testing, which is confidential, not anonymous. Arrange for testing only with a physician whom you trust to guard your confidentiality. Q. I just found out that I am HIV positive. A. Expert medical care for HIV-disease can extend the period of healthy functioning, perhaps indefinitely. You need to find a physician knowledgeable about HIV disease, have your immune system monitored through blood tests, and consider various medications to slow the virus and prevent opportunistic infections.