Abstract
The forecasting of economic resources utilisation of the resident population for a Regional Healthcare Service, based on its clinical characteristics, it is of high relevance in order to plan the regional healthcare budget. The usefulness of a patient based approach to determine public direct healthcare costs is presented through research conducted within Regione Lombardia on a cohort of HIV positive patients referring to Hospital Authority “Ospedale Luigi Sacco”, Milan. All the costs related to HAART , other drugs, outpatient and inpatient activity between 2004 and 2007 were assessed, integrating information within clinical and administrative databases. This allowed the possibility to identify the clinical characteristics which lead to an increase of costs for a Regional Healthcare System, and to assess standard costs per pathology, providing a tool to monitor the costs trends and to control the appropriateness of healthcare services.