This paper examines the form of performance-based contract which is relatively new to healthcare systems. Economic theories on contracting are reviewed to provide theoretical support for potential impacts of performance-based contracting (PBC) on improving efficiency of the healthcare system....

There has been much recent debate in the health economics literature as to the (near) equivalence of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that whether such a (near) equivalence exists depends on whether one defines economic...

Background: There is evidence that the earlier a patient reaches hospital and receives thrombolysis, the better the outcome. The GREAT (Grampian Region Early Anistreplase Trial) directly addressed the issue of early thrombolysis by evaluating, in a randomised controlled trial, the efficacy of...

Willingness-to-pay (WTP) studies are increasingly being used in the evaluation of health care programmes and, although less frequently, for priority setting in health care. The usefulness of willingness-to-pay as a discriminatory tool for priority setting is considered in this paper for three...

While there are many published economic evaluations of health care, few allow the reader to understand the practice of costing health care programmes. The aim of this document is to fill this gap. In the document, the principles of how to cost health care for economic evaluation are outlined....

Background: Decision makers within the Calgary Health Region adopted and applied programme budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) for priority-setting activity across major service portfolios within the Region. Methods: Seventeen in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with senior...

This paper outlines recent advances in the methods of cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Economic evaluations in healthcare can be criticised for, amongst other things, the inappropriate use of incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and the reporting of benefits in terms of cost savings, such as...

To date, a common view in the health economics literature is that the applicability of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is limited, due to the distribution problem which underlies its main method of valuation (e.g. willingness to pay). One view is that cost effectiveness analysis (CEA) overcomes...

A major issue in health economic evaluation is that of the value to place on a quality adjusted life year (QALY), commonly used as a measure of health care effectiveness across Europe. This critical policy issue is reflected in the growing interest across Europe in development of more sound...