Costs that relates directly to the individual care of a patient such as drugs, specific treatments received, and food.
Direct patient expenses contrasts with indirect patient expenses, which consists of items that cannot be attributed to the care of individual patients, such as lighting, heating, capital equipment, support staff, and services.
The distinction between direct and indirect expenditure relates closely to the distinction between variable and fixed costs in business finance management.
Fixed costs do not vary, in the short term, with the level of output; variable costs do.

Adapted from World Health Organization. Terminology. A glossary of technical terms on the economics and finance of health services. Internet. Accessed December 18, 2015.