Measuring What Matters

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act gives fundingto cities, states, and other public and private entities to provide care and supportservices to individuals with HIV and AIDS who have low-incomes and little or noinsurance. The CARE Act is a discretionary program that relies on annual appropriationsfrom Congress to provide care for low-income, uninsured, or underinsuredindividuals who have no other resources to pay for care. Despite its successes, fundinghas been insufficient to address all of the inequalities and gaps in coverage forpeople with HIV.

In response to a congressional mandate, an Institute of Medicine committee wasformed to reevaluate whether CARE allocation strategies are an equitable and efficientway of distributing resources to jurisdictions with the greatest needs and toassess whether quality of care can be refined and expanded. Measuring WhatMatters: Allocation, Planning, and Quality Assessment for the Ryan White CARE Act proposesseveral types of analyses that could be used to guide the evaluation andimprovement of allocation formulas, as well as a framework for assessing quality ofcare provided to HIV-infected persons.