Balancing Quality and Costs: The Essence of Cost-Effective Treatment

Cost-effective treatment refers to healthcare interventions that provide significant health benefits at a reasonable cost. It involves optimizing resource utilization and prioritizing interventions with high value for patients.
Category
Healthcare Approach
Where to get
Implemented in healthcare systems and policies to ensure efficient use of resources and equitable access to care.
Resource-allocation
Optimizing healthcare resources
Outcome-assessment
Measuring treatment value
Preventive-strategies
Promoting long-term health
Prepared by Shruti Sahoo, reviewed by Dr. Eugene Smith

Cost-Effective Treatment FAQ

What is the cost-effectiveness of a health care intervention?

The cost-effectiveness of a health care intervention is an important criterion for policy. Different approaches exist to identify “the cost-effective” (“optimal”, “preferred”, “most attractive”, or “most cost-effective”) intervention among a set of alternatives.

Why is cost effectiveness important?

Cost effectiveness is assessed in order to maximise health gain from available resources. If resources are used for interventions that are not cost effective, then less health gain is achievable across the whole population (that is, there is a greater 'opportunity cost').

Should cost effectiveness and clinical effectiveness be discussed together?

Cost effectiveness and clinical effectiveness should be discussed in parallel when formulating recommendations. If there is strong evidence that one clinical strategy 'dominates' the alternatives (that is, it is both more effective and less costly), clearly this strategy should be recommended for appropriate patients.

What is the most cost-effective health care intervention?

The (most) cost-effective health care intervention from a set of interventions is the intervention that is on average cost-effective, irrespective of the degree of uncertainty.

What should be included in a cost to outcome analysis?

This should include the costs, outcomes, and any other key facets that need to be displayed to understand the cost to outcome analysis, such as the costs, quality-adjusted life-years, cost per quality-adjusted life-years, and a determination of the incremental cost-effectiveness (either the ratio or whether the analysis was dominated or dominant).

How are health care costs measured?

In this analysis, costs are measured in monetary value and the effects of treatment in natural effectiveness units, such as years of life gained or improved functional status (Secoli et al., 2010 ), or even, improving access to health care (Loesch et al., 2021 ).

Cost-Effective Treatment References

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