Estimating the national cost of treating people with HIV disease: patient, payer, and provider data.

OBJECTIVE: Existing estimates of the national cost of treating all people with HIV disease use data from a sample of people with HIV disease to extrapolate the cost of treating all people with HIV disease (patient-based approach). This study derives estimates using two novel approaches (i.e., payer-based and provider-based) and compares these with existing estimates. DATA SOURCES: These include the Health Insurance Association of American and the American Council of Life Insurance 1996 HIV survey, the 1996 State Inpatient Databases (SID) maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the IMS America Ltd. survey of independent and chain drugstores. PRINCIPAL
FINDINGS: The cost of treating all people with HIV disease in 1996 was between $6.7 and $7.8 billion U.S., and the average annual cost of treating a person with HIV disease was between $20,000 and $24,700 U.S.
CONCLUSIONS: Analysts should derive estimates of the cost of treating people with HIV disease using several different approaches. K