Wall Street - March 15, 2001
By a Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter
In one study, researchers at Rand Health, Santa Monica, Calif., along with others, found that the total cost of care for adults with HIV infection has declined since the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy.
Although medication costs increased markedly, the treatment regimen saved on hospital costs. The study, which analyzed 2,864 patients, found that the average annual cost of treatment declined from $20,300 a patient in 1996 to $18,300 in 1998.
In another study, doctors and researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School estimated that the antiviral cocktails cost significantly more than no therapy, but were still a cost-effective use of resources because they added extra healthy life expectancy at a relatively affordable rate. The researchers estimated that it cost between $13,000 and $23,000 to add one year of healthy life expectancy for a patient with HIV, many of whom were in advanced stages of the disease. Average life expectancy of patients in the study, adjusted for quality of life, increased from about 18 months to nearly three years.
The first study, by the HIV Cost and Services group, was funded by Rand and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, along with various federal grants. Funding for the second study came, in part, from grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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