Financial issues in defining levels for HIV/AIDS research.

This article outlines the issues in cost identification and fair payment for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) research. Costs need to be better identified using activity-based costing methods to reveal the structural pattern of care. Patterns of care can be too expensive if they: (1) overutilize the hospital as the locus of care, or (2) underutilize prevention and education. Managers need to learn more about the cost identification issues payers face in designing a fair payment system. In the long run, more health care professionals would serve the cause of innovation and biomedical research if they all work together to define a stable fair funding mechanism. Payers need to learn that fair payment of indirect costs is not a bonus or a windfall profit.