The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, renamed the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act in 2007, gives funding to cities, states, and other public and private entities to provide care and support services to individuals with HIV and AIDS who have low-incomes and little or no insurance. The Ryan White Program is a discretionary program that relies on annual appropriations from Congress to provide care for low-income, uninsured, or underinsured individuals who have no other resources to pay for care. Despite its successes, funding has been insufficient to address all of the inequalities and gaps in coverage for people with HIV/AIDS.

In response to a congressional mandate, an Institute of Medicine committee was formed to re-evaluate whether Ryan White allocation strategies are an equitable and efficient way of distributing resources to jurisdictions with the greatest needs, and to assess whether quality of care can be refined and expanded. Measuring What Matters: Allocation, Planning, and Quality Assessment for the Ryan White CARE Act proposes several types of analyses that could be used to guide the evaluation and improvement of allocation formulas.

A section in this book is dedicated to assessing the quality of care provided to HIV-infected persons and provides an overview of several national quality management programs.