Direct costs for the treatment of HIV-infection in a German cohort after the introduction of HAART.

Abstract

Expenditures for HAART remained on a high level. Despite rising drug prices and increased use of antiretrovirals a decrease of mean costs of HAART by about 10% resulted from more frequent use of less expensive drug combinations. The continuous decrease of expenditures for non-HAART drugs, diagnostics and hospitalisation predominated and therefore HAART caused about a half of total direct costs in 1997 and two third in 2001 respectively. Higher expenditures in advanced stages of disease continued over the follow up period and raise the question of an economic impact of earlier initiation of treatment. More extensive use of standardized evaluation of direct costs could be an important tool towards a more rational allocation of resources in health care.