Access to prescribed HIV prevention drugs starts with testing, but cost and stigma can prevent people from getting tested. That’s why telemedicine provider Mistr is partnering with Walmart to bring its free HIV testing services to seven stores in Georgia, which has the nation’s third-highest rate of new HIV infections.
Mistr was launched in 2018 with a focus on helping patients get pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV at low or no cost. Although data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the rate of new infections falling by 12% between 2018 and 2022, tens of thousands of people are diagnosed every year. AmfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, estimates that 13% of the 1.2 million Americans with HIV—which equally affects people of color and men who have sex with men—don’t know they have the virus.
“We really need access to these tests in rural areas where it’s difficult to get to a clinic,” said Mistr founder Tristan Schukraft. “Walmart is well positioned to provide that.”
The free Mistr services will complement Walmart’s efforts over the past year to improve care for its HIV-positive customers. Last year, the retailer opened 70 HIV-focused pharmacy locations in Texas, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Florida, offering free, pharmacist-administered HIV testing as part of opening events. This summer, it is working to bring free HIV testing to 18 specialty pharmacies in Colorado and Virginia. Schukraft says Mistr can step in where Walmart’s expansion efforts haven’t caught up (Georgia is among the states where the retailer is closing its primary care clinics).
The Mistr test will be available on the shelf at stores that offer it (Walmart also sells other types of HIV tests). Customers can bring the test home, prick their finger, and send their sample to Mistr’s lab, receiving results within four days. A Mistr health care provider will review all available tests and contact the patient to provide follow-up care—which patients can get through the company or their doctors.
Mistr helps patients in English and Spanish get medications like PrEP and DoxyPEP—taken after exposure to HIV—for free. The company works with insurance companies to cover the patient’s drugs, and enrolls uninsured patients in assistance programs. Mistr partners with government programs to receive funding and grants to make its services free.
Mistr is currently underwriting all costs of the free HIV testing program, but Schukraft hopes that MISTR will be able to secure additional government grants to expand the program nationally. After losing a friend to HIV, Schukraft sees Mistr’s work as important. “This generation owes it to previous generations—who had no choice and died because of it—to use all our tools to end HIV,” he said.
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