Avoiding opportunity cost neglect in cost-effectiveness analysis for health technology assessment

James Lomas; Jessica Marie Ochalek; Rita Faria

doi:10.1007/s40258-021-00679-9

Avoiding opportunity cost neglect in cost-effectiveness analysis for health technology assessment

James Lomas, Jessica Marie Ochalek, Rita Faria

Centre for Health Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Despite being a fundamental tenet of economic analysis, there is a lack of clarity regarding the relevance of opportunity costs to cost-effectiveness analysis for health technology assessment. We argue that this is in part due to the importance of the decision context in understanding the nature of opportunity costs. Taking the example of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on behalf of the NHS in England and Wales, we explore the implications of existing discrepancies between policy thresholds and emerging empirical evidence for analysts presenting results of cost-effectiveness analysis. A number of conceptually related, but distinct, issues are discussed and clarified.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	13-18
Journal	Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
Volume	20
Issue number	1
Early online date	1 Sep 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-021-00679-9
Publication status	Published - Jan 2022

Bibliographical note

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

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Cite this

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