Summary
Which costs and benefits to consider in economic evaluations of healthcare interventions remains an area of much controversy. Unrelated medical costs in life-years gained is an important cost category that is normally ignored in economic evaluations, irrespective of the perspective chosen for the analysis. National guidelines for pharmacoeconomic research largely endorse this practice, either by explicitly requiring researchers to exclude these costs from the analysis or by leaving inclusion or exclusion up to the discretion of the analyst. However, the inclusion of unrelated medical costs in life-years gained appears to be gaining support in the literature.
This article provides an overview of the discussions to date. The inclusion of unrelated medical costs in life-years gained seems warranted, in terms of both optimality and internal and external consistency. We use an example of a smoking-cessation intervention to highlight the consequences of different practices of accounting for costs and effects in economic evaluations. Only inclusion of all costs and effects of unrelated medical care in life-years gained can be considered both internally and externally consistent. Including or excluding unrelated future medical costs may have important distributional consequences, especially for interventions that substantially increase length of life. Regarding practical objections against inclusion of future costs, it is important to note that it is becoming increasingly possible to accurately estimate unrelated medical costs in life-years gained. We therefore conclude that the inclusion of unrelated medical costs should become the new standard.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliografia
Drummond MF, Sculpher MJ, Torrance GW, et al. Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press Inc, 2005
Gold MR, Siegel JE, Russel LB, et al., editors. Cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
Johannesson M. A note on the depreciation of the societal perspective in economic evaluation of health care. Health Policy 1995; 33: 59–66
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Guide to the methods of technology appraisal. London: NICE, 2008 [online]. Available from URL: http://www.nice.org.uk/media/B52/A7/TAMethodsGuideUpdatedJune2008.pdf [Accessed 2008 Jul 17]
Johannesson M, Meltzer D. Some reflections on cost-effectiveness analysis. Health Econ 1998; 7: 1–7
Brouwer WBF, van Exel NJA, Koopmanschap MA, et al. Productivity costs before and after absence from work: as important as common? Health Policy 2002; 61: 173–87
Brouwer WBF, Rutten FFH, Koopmanschap MA. Costing in economic evaluations. In: Drummond MF, McGuire A, editors. Economic evaluation in health care: merging theory with practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001
Russell LB. Is prevention better than cure? Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1986
Garber AM, Phelps CE. Economic foundations of cost-effectiveness analysis. J Health Econ 1997; 16: 1–31
Meltzer D, Johannesson M. Inconsistencies in the ‘societal perspective’ on costs of the panel on cost-effectiveness in health and medicine. Med Decis Making 1999; 19: 371–7
Nyman JA. Should the consumption of survivors be included as a cost in cost-utility analysis? Health Econ 2004; 13: 417–27
Gandjour A, Lauterbach KW. Does prevention save costs? Considering deferral of the expensive last year of life. J Health Econ 2005; 24: 715–24
van Baal PHM, Feenstra TL, Hoogenveen RT, et al. Unrelated medical care in life years gained and the cost utility of primary prevention: in search of a ‘perfect’ cost-utility ratio. Health Econ 2007; 16: 421–33
Health Care Insurance Board (CVZ). Guidelines for pharmacoeconomic research, actualized version [in Dutch]. Diemen: Health Care Insurance Board, 2006
Stone PW, Chapman RH, Sandberg EA, et al. Measuring costs in cost-utility analyses. Int J Technol Assess Health Care 2000; 16: 111–24
Clarke PM, Gray AM, Briggs A, et al. Cost-utility analyses of intensive blood glucose and tight blood pressure control in type 2 diabetes (UKPDS 72). Diabetologia 2005; 48: 868–77
Godfrey C, Parrott S, Coleman T, et al. The cost-effectiveness of the English smoking treatment services: evidence from practice. Addiction 2005; 100 Suppl. 2: 70–83
Meltzer D. Accounting for future costs in medical cost-effectiveness analysis. J Health Econ 1997; 16: 33–64
Weinstein MC, Manning Jr WG. Theoretical issues in cost-effectiveness analysis. J Health Econ 1997; 16: 121–8
Lee RH. Future costs in cost effectiveness analysis. J Health Econ 2008; 27(4): 809–18
van Baal PH, Polder JJ, de Wit GA, et al. Lifetime medical costs of obesity: prevention no cure for increasing health expenditure. PLoS Med 2008; 5(2): e29
Brouwer WBF, van Exel NJA, Baltussen RMPM, et al. A dollar is a dollar is a dollar: or is it? Value Health 2006; 9: 341–7
Koopmanschap MA, Rutten FFH, van Ineveld BM, et al. The friction cost method for measuring indirect costs of disease. J Health Econ 1995; 14: 171–89
Brouwer WBF, Koopmanschap MA, Rutten FH. Productivity costs measurement through quality of life? A response to the recommendation of the Washington Panel. Health Econ 1997; 3: 253–9
Brouwer WBF, Koopmanschap MA, Rutten FH. Productivity costs in cost-effectiveness analysis: numerator or denominator. A further discussion. Health Econ 1997; 6: 511–4
Johannesson M, Karlsson G. The friction cost method: a comment. J Health Econ 1997; 16: 249–56
Weinstein MC, Siegel JE, Garber AM, et al. Productivity costs and health-related quality of life: a response to the Erasmus Group. Health Econ 1997; 5: 505–10
Brouwer WBF, Koopmanschap MA. How to calculate indirect costs in economic evaluations. Pharmacoeconomics 1998; 13 (5 Pt 1): 563–9
Brouwer WBF, Koopmanschap MA. On the economic foundations of CEA: ladies and gentlemen, take your positions! J Heath Econ 2000; 19: 439–59
Brouwer WBF, Koopmanschap MA. The friction cost method: leisure for nothing and replacement for free? Pharmacoeconomics 2005; 23(2): 105–11
Weinstein MC, Fineberg HV, Elstein AS, et al. Clinical decision analysis. Philadelphia (PA): Saunders, 1980
Gandjour A. Consumption costs and earnings during added years of life: a reply to Nyman. Health Econ 2006; 15: 315–7
Nyman JA. More on survival consumption costs in cost-utility analysis. Health Econ 2006; 15: 319–22
Richardson JRJ, Olsen JA. In defence of societal sovereignty: a comment on Nyman ‘the inclusion of survivor consumption in CUA’. Health Econ 2006; 15: 311–3
Lundin D, Ramsberg J. On survival consumption costs: a reply to Nyman. Health Econ 2008; 17: 293–7
Liljas B, Karlsson GS, Stålhammer N. On future non-medical costs in economic evaluations. Health Econ 2008; 17: 579–91
Mushlin AI, Fintor L. Is screening for breast cancer cost-effective? Cancer 1992; 69 Suppl. 7: 1957–62
Pharmaceutical Benefits Board (LFN). General guidelines for economic evaluations from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Board. Solna: LFN, 2003 [online]. Available from URL: http://www.lfn.se/upload/English/ENG_lfnar2003-eng.pdf [Accessed 2008 Jan 18]
Brouwer WBF, van Exel NJA, van Baal PHM. Costs in life-years gained: is it time for a new guideline? [in Dutch]. VGE-Informatiebulletin 2007; 24(1): 11–4
Zweifel P, Felder S, Meiers M. Ageing of population and health care expenditure: a red herring? Health Econ 1999; 8: 485–96
Serup-Hansen N, Wickstrøm J, Kristiansen I. Future health care costs: do health care costs during the last year of life matter? Health Policy 2002; 62: 161–72
Seshamani M, Gray AM. Time to death and death expenditure: an improved model for the impact of demographic change on health care costs. Age Ageing 2004; 33: 556–61
Werblow A, Felder S, Zweifel P, et al. Population ageing and health care expenditure: a school of ‘red herrings’? Health Econ 2007; 16: 1109–26
Garber AM. Realistic rigor in cost-effectiveness methods. Med Decis Making 1999; 19: 378–9
Garber AM, Phelps CE. Future costs and the future of cost-effectiveness analysis. J Health Econ 2008; 27(4): 819–21
Meltzer D. Response to ‘Future costs and the future of cost-effectiveness analysis’. J Health Econ 2008; 27(4): 822–5
Blomqvist Å. Defining the value of a statistical life: a comment. J Health Econ 2002; 21: 169–75
Feenstra TL, Hamber-van Reenen HH, Hoogenveen RT, et al. Cost-effectiveness of face-to-face smoking cessation interventions: a dynamic modeling study. Value Health 2005; 8: 178–90
Silagy C, Lancaster T, Stead L, et al. Nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2002: CD000146
Gyrd-Hansen D, Søgaard J, Kronborg O. Colorectal cancer screening: efficiency and effectiveness. Health Econ 1998; 7: 9–20
Manns B, Meltzer D, Taub K, et al. Illustrating the impact of including future costs in economic evaluations: an application to end-stage renal disease care. Health Econ 2003; 12: 949–58
Brouwer WBF, Culyer AJ, van Exel NJA, et al. Welfarism vs extra-welfarism. J Health Econ 2008; 27: 325–38
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Traduzione dell’articolo: Unrelated Medical Costs in Life-Years Gained. Should They be Included in Economic Evaluations of Healthcare Interventions? Pharmacoeconomics 2008; 26 (10): 815–830.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rappange, D.R., van Baal, P.H.M., van Exel, N.J.A. et al. I costi sanitari indiretti (non correlati) durante gli anni di vita guadagnati. Pharmacoeconomics-Ital-Res-Articles 11, 55–70 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03320657
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03320657