1
What are the main concepts (basis) of an economic evaluation?
They are efficiency, opportunity cost and benefit, scarcity and sacrifice.
Economic Evaluation Methods in Healthcare
- 20 soru-cevap
- Health Economıcs (ENG)
2
What is an economic evaluation?
An economic evaluation is a systematic and straightforward valuation, measurement, and comparison of outcomes and costs of the options under consideration.
3
Why is the economic evaluation in healthcare important?
Economic evaluation methods provide health policymakers with information on both the costs and consequences of intervention alternatives. Therefore, they are effective tools for making decisions efficiently. Economic evaluations ensure the more efficient and effective allocation of resources to health services.
4
What are the fundamental techniques of economic evaluation?
They are the cost-minimization analysis (CMA), cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and cost-utility analysis (CUA).
5
Which evaluation technique compares the costs between the two interventions, which have identical outcomes?
Cost-minimization analysis (CMA)
6
Which evaluation method measures the outcomes in monetary units?
Cost benefit analysis
7
What is the common feature of four economic evaluation techniques?
Costs are measured in monetary units in all techniques (CBA, CUA, CEA and CMA).
8
Analyses of costs and benefits are important in economic evaluation. What kind of costs and benefits are considered in economic analyses?
There are three types of costs and benefits: Direct costs refer to expenses for medical care, indirect costs refer to lost production, and intangible costs refer to pain and discomfort resulting from illness. Direct benefits mean savings in health expenditures, indirect benefits mean restored earnings, and intangible benefits mean any reduction in pain and suffering from the illness.
9
What is the main decision to make in cost-minimization analysis?
Choose the alternative with the lowest cost because the outcomes are identical.
10
How is the net benefit value of an intervention calculated?
It is calculated by subtracting its costs from its benefits.
11
Under the scarcity of resources (such as a limited budget), which evaluation ratio is used to compare the healthcare projects (intervention)?
Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR) which is defined as the total benefits (B) of a project divided by the total costs (C) of the projects.
Benefits (B) can be measured by taking into account the effect of the intervention (E) and its price (P). Then B = P x E and if B is greater than C, then the intervention (project) can be implemented.
If there are two projects
(P1 ⋅ E1 ) / C1 > (P2 ⋅ E2 )/ C2
12
What are the techniques to estimate the monetary value of health benefits?
They are “the human capital approach (which calculates the present value of the future earnings of an individual)” and “the willingness to pay (which involves quantifying the importance an individual places on a particular good, service, or risk reduction)”.76
13
When there are externalities, how is the optimal level of healthcare production achieved (according to the cost benefit analysis method?
The optimal level of output (production) is achieved where marginal social benefit is equal to marginal social cost.
14
What is the Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)?
CEA is a type of economic assessment that compares the resources invested in an intervention against the health benefits achieved. In other words, CEA assesses the alternative interventions’ outcomes and costs using clinical outcomes in “natural units (health-related metrics such as complications avoided, life years gained, cases diagnosed or symptom-free days”.
15
What is the main difference between Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)?
While health effects are measured in non-monetary units, costs are measured in monetary terms in CEA. Whereas, both benefits and costs are measured in monetary terms in CBA.
16
What are the primary measurement methods used to evaluate outcomes in Cost Utility Analysis (CUA)?
They are QALYs (Quality Adjusted Life Years which measures both the quality of life and the span (quantity) of life and determines the total number of years lived),
HYEs (Health Adjusted Life Years in which individuals are asked how they rate the range of possible health conditions caused by an intervention), and
DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years which considers an individual’s level of disability instead of their quality of life).
17
What is the Cost Utility Analysis (CUA)?
CUA is an economic evaluation method that concentrates on measuring patients’ preferences for a particular health condition. This is particularly valuable for interventions that may prolong life but have side effects.
18
What is the Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) and how is it measured?
QALY is a measurement method that assesses survival weighted by the quality of life. In QALY, the quality of life is assigned a score ranging from the range of “1 and 0”, “1” represents “perfect health”, while “0” indicates “death”. Additionally, life expectancy is often adjusted downwards to account for limitations in mental health, physical or cognitive functioning, and the presence of pain that individuals may endure during these years.
19
What is the main difference between the Cost Utility Analysis (CUA) and the Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA)?
In CUA, both the output and the value of the various interventions are assessed while only output is assessed in CEA. In other words, the benefits are quantified according to healthy year equivalents in CUA.
20
What the main limitations of the QALY in economic evaluations?
Firstly, it is difficult to describe the cost per QALY for chronic illnesses truthfully.
Secondly, the cost/QALY threshold changes geographically and is inadequately defined.
Thirdly, CUA needs additional resources for measuring “utility” scores corresponding to CEA.
Fourthly, there is a continued discussion about whether future QALYs ought to be discounted.
Finally, the QALY is considered to be an essential equity problem as it cares to prefer healthier and younger populations.