Economic evaluation as a perspective in evaluating health program Term Paper

Economic evaluation as a perspective in evaluating health program - Term Paper Example In addition, the cost of health care is assuming a larger role in clinical policymaking. Even wealthy nations, squeezed between the Scylla of exponential technology growth and the Charybdis of shrinking health care resources must make hard choices about which technologies they can afford (Gold et al, 2007). Economic evaluation is a methodology that is being used increasingly to help clinicians and policymakers think about these hard choices. Economic evaluation is the â€Å"comparative analysis of alternative courses of action in terms of both their costs and consequences† (Drummond et al, 2005). When measuring the effects of health programs on both resource consumption and health, economic evaluation allows us to see how much health care â€Å"bang† we are getting for our â€Å"buck.† Over the last 20 years the number of published CEAs has grown exponentially, particularly in clinical journals. Insurers, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), and regional and national governments are showing an increasing interest in the results of CEAs, particularly in the area of pharmaceuticals. Economic evaluation has matured as a scientific discipline. In this brief review we discuss some of the characteristics and uses of economic evaluation and provide direction for those who wish to learn more. Full economic evaluations are always comparative. No treatment is ever â€Å"cost-effective† in isolation. It is always more or less so in relation to some other treatment, even if the alternate treatment is to â€Å"do nothing.† Even doing nothing has health and cost consequences that must be considered (Ketley, 2009). What programs should be compared? In their work on the subject, Zweifel and his colleagues (2009) states that economic evaluation ideally includes all potential and mutually exclusive programs for a defined population. Thus an ideal economic evaluation of colorectal cancer