scholarly journals Experiences of including costs of added life years in health economic evaluations in Sweden

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Pirhonen ◽  
Thomas Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Economic ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Empirical Point

It is of importance to include the appropriate costs and outcomes when evaluating a health intervention. Sweden is the only country where the national guidelines of decisions on reimbursement explicitly state that costs of added life years should be accounted for when presenting health economic evaluations. The aim of this article is to, from a theoretical and empirical point of view, critically analyze the Swedish recommendations used by the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV), when it comes to the use of costs of added life years in economic evaluations of health care. The aim is furthermore to analyze the numbers used in Sweden and discuss their impact on the incremental cost‑effectiveness ratios of assessed technologies. If following a societal perspective, based on welfare economics, there is strong support for the inclusion of costs of added life years in health economic evaluations. These costs have a large impact on the results. However this fact may be in conflict with ethical concerns of allocation of health care resources, such as favoring the younger part of the population over the older. It is important that the estimates of production and consumption reflect the true societal values, which is not the case with the values used in Sweden.

UPDATE OF THE DUTCH MANUAL FOR COSTING IN ECONOMIC EVALUATIONS

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siok Swan Tan ◽  
Clazien A. M. Bouwmans ◽  
Frans F. H. Rutten ◽  
Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen
Keyword(s):  
Health Economic ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
International Studies ◽  
National Guidelines ◽  
Reference Prices ◽  
Life Years

Objectives: In 2000, the first “Dutch Manual for Costing: Methods and Reference Prices for Economic Evaluations in Healthcare” was published, followed by an updated version in 2004. The purpose of the Manual is to facilitate the implementation and assessment of costing studies in economic evaluations. New developments necessitated the publication of a thoroughly updated version of the Manual in 2010. The present study aims to describe the main changes of the 2010 Manual compared with earlier editions of the Manual.Methods: New and updated topics of the Manual were identified. The recommendations of the Manual were compared with the health economic guidelines of other countries, eliciting strengths and limitations of alternative methods.Results: New topics in the Manual concern medical costs in life-years gained, the database of the Diagnosis Treatment Combination (DBC) casemix System, reference prices for the mental healthcare sector and the costs borne by informal care-givers. Updated topics relate to the friction cost method, discounting future effects and options for transferring cost results from international studies to the Dutch situation.Conclusions: The Action Plan is quite similar to many health economic guidelines in healthcare. However, the recommendations on particular aspects may differ between national guidelines in some respects. Although the Manual may serve as an example to countries intending to develop a manual of this kind, it should always be kept in mind that preferred methods predominantly depend on a country's specific context.

Mental health economics: current methodological issues

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. McCrone
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Mental Health Economics

Background:Investment in innovative mental health care services requires the use of scarce resources that could be used in alternative ways. Economic evaluation is essential to ensure that such an investment is appropriately compared with investment elsewhere.Method:A non-systematic review of mental health evaluations identifies key methodological issues pertaining to economic studies.Results:Economic evaluations require the measurement and combination of costs and outcomes, and clarity about how this measurement is undertaken is required. Regarding costs, important considerations relate to the perspective to be taken (e.g., health service or societal), method of measurement (patient self-report or use of databases) and valuation (actual costs, fees or expenditure). Decision makers frequently need to compare evidence both within and between clinical areas and therefore there is a tension between the use of condition specific and generic outcome measures. Quality-adjusted life years are frequently used in economic evaluations, but their appropriateness in mental health care studies is still debated.Conclusions:Economic evaluations in the area of mental health care are increasing in number and it is essential that researchers continue to develop and improve methods used to conduct such studies.

scholarly journals ABSENT–MINDED DRIVERS IN THE LAB: TESTING GILBOA'S MODEL

2002 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEFFEN HUCK ◽  
WIELAND MÜLLER
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Decision Problems ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
Imperfect Recall ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Empirical Point

This note contributes to the discussion of decision problems with imperfect recall from an empirical point of view. We argue that, using standard methods of experimental economics, it is impossible to induce (or control for) absent–mindedness of subjects. Nevertheless, it is possible to test Gilboa's (1997) agent–based approach to games with imperfect recall. We implement his model of the absent–minded driver problem in an experiment and find, if subjects are repeatedly randomly rematched, strong support for the equilibrium prediction which coincides with Piccione and Rubinstein's (1997) ex ante solution of the driver's problem.

Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of Targeted, Personalized Risk Information to Increase Appropriate Screening by First-Degree Relatives of People With Colorectal Cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 798-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Penny Reeves ◽  
Christopher Doran ◽  
Mariko Carey ◽  
Emilie Cameron ◽  
Robert Sanson-Fisher ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Usual Care ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Screening Guidelines ◽  
First Degree Relatives ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Quality Adjusted Life

Background. Economic evaluations are less commonly applied to implementation interventions compared to clinical interventions. The efficacy of an implementation strategy to improve adherence to screening guidelines among first-degree relatives of people with colorectal cancer was recently evaluated in a randomized-controlled trial. Using these trial data, we examined the costs and cost-effectiveness of the intervention from societal and health care funder perspectives. Method. In this prospective, trial-based evaluation, mean costs, and outcomes were calculated. The primary outcome of the trial was the proportion of participants who had screening tests in the year following the intervention commensurate with their risk category. Quality-adjusted life years were included as secondary outcomes. Intervention costs were determined from trial records. Standard Australian unit costs for 2016/2017 were applied. Cost-effectiveness was assessed using the net benefit framework. Nonparametric bootstrapping was used to calculate uncertainty intervals (UIs) around the costs and the incremental net monetary benefit statistic. Results. Compared with usual care, mean health sector costs were $17 (95% UI [$14, $24]) higher for those receiving the intervention. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for the primary trial outcome was calculated to be $258 (95% UI [$184, $441]) per additional person appropriately screened. The significant difference in adherence to screening guidelines between the usual care and intervention groups did not translate into a mean quality-adjusted life year difference. Discussion. Providing information on both the costs and outcomes of implementation interventions is important to inform public health care investment decisions. Challenges in the application of cost–utility analysis hampered the interpretation of results and potentially underestimated the value of the intervention. Further research in the form of a modeled extrapolation of the intermediate increased adherence effect and distributional cost-effectiveness to include equity requirements is warranted.

Cost-Effectiveness and Budget Impact of Emicizumab Prophylaxis in Haemophilia A Patients with Inhibitors

2019 ◽  
Vol 120 (02) ◽  
pp. 216-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Angelo Cortesi ◽  
Giancarlo Castaman ◽  
Gianluca Trifirò ◽  
Simona Serao Creazzola ◽  
Giovanni Improta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Cost Saving ◽  
Budget Impact ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Haemophilia A ◽  
Old Patients ◽  
Life Years ◽  
The Cost

AbstractRecent evidence demonstrated that weekly prophylaxis with subcutaneous bispecific antibody (emicizumab) has shown higher efficacy in adolescent and adults patients affected by haemophilia A (HA) with inhibitor, compared with patients treated on demand or on prophylaxis with bypassing agents (BPAs). However, no economic evaluations assessing the value and sustainability of emicizumab prophylaxis have been performed in Europe. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of emicizumab prophylaxis compared with BPA prophylaxis and its possible budget impact from the Italian National Health Service (NHS) perspective. A Markov model and a budget impact model were developed to estimate the cost-effectiveness and budget impact of emicizumab prophylaxis in HA patients with inhibitors. The model was populated using treatment efficacy from clinical trials and key clinical, cost and epidemiological data retrieved through an extensive literature review. Compared with BPAs prophylaxis, emicizumab prophylaxis was found to be more effective (0.94 quality adjusted life-years) and cost saving (–€19.4/–€24.4 million per patient lifetime) in a cohort of 4-year-old patients with HA and inhibitors who failed immune tolerance induction. In the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, emicizumab prophylaxis had always 100% probability of being cost-effective at any threshold. Further, the use of emicizumab prophylaxis was associated to an overall budget reduction of €45.4 million in the next 3 years. In conclusion, the clinically effective emicizumab prophylaxis can be considered a cost-saving treatment for HA with inhibitor patients. Furthermore, emicizumab treatment is also associated to a significant reduction of the health care budget, making this new treatment a sustainable and convenient health care option for Italian NHS.

scholarly journals Using a Health Economic Framework to Prioritize Quality Indicators: An Example With Smoking Cessation in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 238146831985235
Author(s):  
Austin Nam ◽  
David M. J. Naimark ◽  
Matthew B. Stanbrook ◽  
Murray D. Krahn
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Economic ◽  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Quality Indicators ◽  
Chronic Obstructive ◽  
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽  
Economic Framework ◽  
Life Years

Background. Health care performance monitoring is a major focus of the modern quality movement, resulting in widespread development of quality indicators and making prioritizations an increasing focus. Currently, few prioritization methods of performance measurements give serious consideration to the association of performance with expected health benefits and costs. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept application of using a health economic framework to prioritize quality indicators by expected variations in population health and costs, using smoking cessation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as an example. Methods. We developed a health state transition, microsimulation model to represent smoking cessation practices for adults with COPD from the health care payer perspective in Ontario, Canada. Variations in life years, quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), and lifetime costs were associated with changes in performance. Incremental net health benefit (INHB) was used to represent the joint variation in mortality, morbidity, and costs associated with the performance of each quality indicator. Results. Using a value threshold of $50,000/QALY, the indicators monitoring assessment of smoking status and smoking cessation interventions were associated with the largest INHBs. Combined performance variations among groups of indicators showed that 81% of the maximum potential INHB could be represented by three out of the six process indicators. Conclusions. A health economic framework can be used to bring dimensions of population health and costs into explicit consideration when prioritizing quality indicators. However, this should not preclude policymakers from considering other dimensions of quality that are not part of this framework.

Economically Unsustainable Drugs and Intergenerational Health Care Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. 151-151
Author(s):  
Dario Sacchini ◽  
◽  
Pietro Refolo ◽  
Antonio G. Spagnolo ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Vast Amount ◽  
Recent Introduction ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Health Care Justice ◽  
Effective Drugs

"Introduction. The recent introduction of extremely effective drugs in treating diseases, but associated with exorbitant costs raised several issues in terms of distributive justice. However, in this debate justice is widely thought in intragenerational terms. The work will explore the concept of intergenerational health care justice, in particular the argument, often used to justify the introduction of this type of drugs, according to which the vast amount of money spent now will allow to have savings in the long run. The recent introduction of some drugs that are extremely effective in treating diseases but associated with exorbitant costs, raised several issues in terms of distributive justice. However, in this debate justice is widely thought in intragenerational terms. Methods: A review of key documents on intergenerational justice was conducted, followed by a nonsystematic review of peer-reviewed and gray literature. The existing material was analyzed and a draft manuscript was prepared and discussed. Some experts carried out the revision of the manuscript until consensus was reached. Results: The concept of intergenerational health care justice has never been well explored. From an intergenerational point of view, the argument – which is often supported by pharmaco-economic evaluations – according to which the vast amount of money spent now for this type of drugs will allow to have savings in the long run is not in itself coherent with the main theories of justice. Conclusions: Considerations that are extrinsic to the assumptions of the main theories of justice are needed in order to justify the argument above. "

Quality of health economic evaluations submitted to the Italian Medicines Agency: current state and future actions

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 560-568
Author(s):  
Angelica Carletto ◽  
Matteo Zanuzzi ◽  
Annalisa Sammarco ◽  
Pierluigi Russo
Keyword(s):  
Health Economic ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Sensitivity Analyses ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Relevant Alternatives ◽  
Current State ◽  
Decision Analytic Modelling ◽  
Life Years

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the current state of health economic evaluations (HEEs) submitted by pharmaceutical companies to the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) as part of their pricing and reimbursement (P&R) dossiers, and to explore potential future actions in order to enhance their quality.MethodsAll company dossiers submitted from October 2016 to December 2018 were reviewed to select those containing pharmacoeconomic studies. The general characteristics of HEEs were described and their quality assessed based on a checklist adapted from Philips et al. (Review of guidelines for good practice in decision-analytic modelling in health technology assessment. Health Technol Assess. 2004;8: 1–158).ResultsOf the 299 dossiers submitted to AIFA, 105 included one or more pharmacoeconomic studies, of which fifty-three were cost-effectiveness analyses. Overall, the compliance of the HEEs with the quality checklist was highly variable: some studies reached high methodological standards whereas others had serious flaws (mean 59.22 percent, range 19.35–90.32 percent). The main weaknesses were the unjustified exclusion of relevant alternatives, poor description and justification of model data and assumptions, and insufficient exploration of uncertainty and study validity. Non-homogeneity across studies was found in study perspectives, discount rates, methods for costing, estimating quality-adjusted life-years and conducting sensitivity analyses.ConclusionsBased on the results of this study, the recommended actions for increasing the quality of HEEs within reimbursement submissions in Italy are twofold: first, to set methodological standards for conducting and reporting HEEs; second, to strengthen the internal assessment process, also through the acquisition of companies' models and re-evaluation of results. These actions will hopefully provide greater contribution to the evidence-based P&R decision making.

PD85 Testing Search Filters To Retrieve Economic Evaluations In Embase

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (S1) ◽  
pp. 158-158
Author(s):  
Ingrid Harboe ◽  
Arna Desser ◽  
Lena Nordheim ◽  
Julie Glanville
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Economic ◽  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Economic Evaluations ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Search Filters

Introduction:Health technology assessments (HTAs) are increasingly used by Norwegian health authorities as the evidence base when prioritizing which health care services to offer. HTAs typically consist of a systematic review of the effects and safety of two or more health care interventions, and an economic evaluation of the interventions, based on systematic literature searches in bibliographic databases. Objective: To identify the best performing of seven search filters to retrieve health economic evaluations used to inform HTAs, by comparing the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) filter to six published filters in Ovid Embase, and achieve a sensitivity of at least 0.90 with a precision of 0.10, and specificity of at least 0.95.Methods:In this filter validation study, the included filters’ performances were compared against a gold standard of economic evaluations published in 2008–2013 (n = 2,248) from the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), and the corresponding records (n = 2,198) in the current version of Ovid Embase.Results:The CEA filter had a sensitivity of 0.899 and precision of 0.029. One filter had a sensitivity of 0.880 and a precision of 0.075, which was closest to the objective. The filter with lowest sensitivity (0.702) had a precision of 0.141.Conclusions:Developing search filters for identifying health economic evaluations, with a good balance between sensitivity and precision, is possible but challenging. Researchers should agree on acceptable levels of performance before concluding on which search filter to use.

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