BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined the impact of physician gender and gender concordance on preventive care, satisfaction, and communication. Less is known about how physician gender and gender concordance affect care for chronic illnesses, including HIV. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine whether patient-clinician gender concordance (patient and clinician are of the same gender) influences receipt of protease inhibitor (PI) therapy and ratings of care among HIV-infected patients. METHODS: We reviewed data from 1860 patients and 397 clinicians in the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study, a nationally representative the association between gender concordance and time to first PI use, and multivariable logistic regression was utilized to examine the association of gender concordance with patients' problems with care and their overall rating of care. RESULTS: Patients who had a male clinician received PIs earlier than those who had a female clinician (adjusted time ratio = 0.69 for having a male vs having a female clinician; P