Discounting in economic evaluations: Stepping forward towards optimal decision rules

Hugh Gravelle; Werner Brouwer; Louis Niessen; Maarten Postma; Frans Rutten

doi:10.1002/hec.1168

Discounting in economic evaluations: Stepping forward towards optimal decision rules

Hugh Gravelle, Werner Brouwer, Louis Niessen, Maarten Postma, Frans Rutten

Centre for Health Economics

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

Abstract

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has recently changed its guidelines on discounting costs and effects in economic evaluations. In common with most other regulatory bodies it now requires that health effects should be discounted at the same rate as costs. We show that the guideline leads to sub-optimal decisions because it fails to account for the changing value of health. NICE (and other regulatory bodies) should either use differential discounting or stipulate how the changing value of health should otherwise be dealt with. We also show how binding health service budget constraints should be incorporated in evaluations. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	307-317
Number of pages	11
Journal	Health Economics
Volume	16
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1168
Publication status	Published - Mar 2007

Keywords

cost-effectiveness
discounting
value of health
COST-EFFECTIVENESS
HEALTH

Access to Document

10.1002/hec.1168

Cite this

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