Cost Benefit Analysis And Health Care Evaluations

Professor Brent s book is a superb and much-needed text in the field of health care evaluation. The economic approaches for appraisal of health care programs are presented with greater clarity than any other available text. A comprehensive review of cost-minimization, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost utility analysis, and cost benefit analysis is given in a simple and yet very insightful manner that pointedly demonstrates their fundamental principles, methodological requirements, and common linkages for evaluation research. The book skilfully merges theory and application of the economic analyses of health care, combining the latest literature with adroit illustrations of required methodologies and easily understandable examples that inform the reader of how empirical evaluation research should be conducted. Major evaluation concerns about the appropriateness of discounting health benefits, the appropriate discount (interest) rate, and intangible benefits and costs are critically appraised. Not only is the criterion of economic efficiency of health care programs explored directly and with lucidity, but the important social question of the equity of health interventions is also assessed straightforwardly. Students of health care as well as health policy analysts and administrators are provided with a considerable solid foundation for undertaking evaluation of complex health care issues. In short, Professor Brent has even made the economics of health care evaluation accessible to non-economists in the health care field. Paul L. Solano, University of Delaware, US Cost benefit analysis is the only method of economic evaluation which can effectively indicate whether a health care treatment or intervention is worthwhile. This book attempts to build a bridge between cost benefit analysis, as developed by economists, and the health care evaluation literature which relies on other evaluation approaches such as cost-minimization, cost-effectiveness analysis and cost utility analysis. Robert Brent explains the many different ways in which these other valuation techniques can be converted into cost benefit analysis and examines both the traditional (human capital) and modern (willingness to pay) approaches. Case studies are used throughout to explain and illustrate the various methodologies being examined. The author follows an applied economics approach, in which methods and ideas are evaluated according to practicability and not according to their theoretical purity. Ultimately, he resolves a number of disputes and makes some new, but subtle, contributions by reinterpreting, correcting and extending existing work. The book covers the topic in an accessible manner, from the foundations to the frontiers of the field, and clearly explains all the necessary economic principles along the way. Cost Benefit Analysis and Health Care Evaluations will be invaluable to students and researchers of economics, public policy and health care policy, as well as policymakers and health care practitioners. It can also be used as a comprehensive introductory text by anyone with an interest in cost benefit analysis.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive set of instructions and examples of how to perform a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of a health intervention. Developed out of a course run by Jordan Louviere at the University of Technology, Sydney, entitled An Introduction to Stated Preference Discrete Choice Modelling it has a particular focus on the use of stated preference survey methods to identify consumer preference data, as well as the use of recent developments in cost-effectiveness analysis within a CBA framework. In doing so, the most up to date methodologies for CBA are compiled in a comprehensive manner with the aim of advancing the methodology of CBA in healthcare. ABOUT THE SERIES Series editors Alastair Gray and Andrew Briggs Economic evaluation of health intervention is a growing specialist field, and this series of practical handbooks tackles, in depth, topics superficially addressed in more general economics books. Each volume includes illustrative material, case histories and worked examples to encourage the reader to apply the methods discussed, with supporting material provided online. The series is aimed at health economists in academia, the pharmaceutical industry and the health sector, those on advanced health economics courses, and health researchers in associated fields.

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The purpose of economic evaluations in healthcare is to affect decision making. So how do you determine the best use of scarce resources, in terms of benefits gained from expenditures? The purpose of this book is to review the methods of economic evaluation and how they may be used optimally, and with practical results. It includes review articles on familiar analytical tools, opinion papers on areas of contention, and guidelines on how to apply and analyse economics tools, methods and models.

"This book is an introduction to economic evaluation for those with little or no knowledge of economics or health economics. Essentials of Economic Evaluation in Healthcare gives an overview of economic issues specific to healthcare, and describes the main types of economic evaluation: cost effectiveness, cost utility and cost benefit analysis. The use of decision analysis to design and carry out economic evaluations is discussed. Preferred statistical methods for handling costs, current approaches to dealing with uncertainty and quantifying patient preferences using discrete choice experiments are explained. Each chapter contains worked examples and questions. With increasing pressure on national healthcare budgets, all healthcare professionals should have a basic understanding of the finite nature of healthcare resources, and the need to make choices between treatments based on a cost-benefit comparison. This book will be invaluable to pharmacists and pharmacy students as well as to other healthcare professionals, researchers and managers." -- publisher website.

Most economic evaluations of health care programmes at the moment are cost effectiveness and cost-utility analyses. The problem with these methods is that their theoretical foundations are unclear. This has led to confusion about how to define the costs and health effects and how to interpret the results of these studies. In the environmental and traffic safety fields it is instead common to carry out traditional cost-bene:fit analyses of health improving programmes. This striking difference in how health programmes are assessed in different fields was the original motivation for writing this book. The aim of the book is to tty and provide a coherent framework within cost-bene:fit analysis and welfare economics for the different methods of economic evaluation in the health care field. The book is written in an easily accessible manner and several examples of applications of the different methods are provided. It is my hope that it will be useful both for teaching purposes and as a guide for practitioners in the field. Glenn C. Blomquist, John D. Graham, Rich O'Conor and four anonymous referees provided helpful comments on previous versions of the manuscript. I would also like to express my gratitude to the following persons for helping me to prepare the manuscript: Carl-Magnus Berglund, Carin Blanksvard, Ann Brown, and Ziad Obeid.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive set of instructions and examples of how to perform an economic evaluation of a health intervention, focusing solely on cost-effectiveness analysis in healthcare.

Since its publication in 1987, Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes has become the standard textbook in this field world-wide. Over the past ten years, the field of economic evaluation in health care has expanded considerably, with a rapid rise in the number of published studies, and wider recognition of their use in health care decision-making. Developments in economic evaluation have also led to the publication of several guidelines for study methodology, most recently those proposed by the United States Public Health Services Panel. The new edition of Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes follows the same basic structure as the first edition. The key methodological principles are outlined using a critical appraisal checklist that can be applied to any published study. The methodological features of the basic forms of analysis (cost analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis) are then explained in more detail. The book has been greatly revised and enlarged, especially with respect to cost-utility and cost- benefit analysis, where major methodological developments have taken place. New to this edition are chapters on collecting and analysing data, and presenting and using economic evaluation results. The new edition will be required reading for anyone commissioning, undertaking, or using economic evaluations in health care, and will be popular with health service professionals, health economists, and health-care decision makers. Reviews of the first edition: 'An important contribution to studies on the economic evaluation of medical care...' (British Medical Journal) 'This is essential reading. Only if all managers are aware of the powers of economic techniques will they be used sensibly' (The Health Service Journal (UK) 'The methodological chapters on cost analysis and cost utility analysis are gems... should become the standard text on the subject at the intermediate level at which it is aimed.' (Medical Decision Making) 'It leaves nothing important in economic evaluation analysis untouched.' (Health Policy and Planning)