HLT 600 GC Week 3 Discussion 3 Latest

How do cost analysis studies influence the development of health care policy? Do the most cost-effective practices always get adopted into law? Use specific examples to support your opinion. Respond to three other peers and provide additional insight and/or constructive comments. One-sentence posts or peer responses are not appropriate and will not receive full credit.

ADDITIONAL INFO 

Cost analysis and the development of health care policy

Introduction

Cost analysis is the process of identifying and quantifying the cost of a healthcare program or service, and then comparing those costs with other instruments that may be used in similar settings. Cost analysis can be used to determine whether particular services are cost-effective, as well as to identify opportunities for savings through improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. In this article we will look at how cost analysis can help develop health care policy initiatives, as well as some common issues related to its implementation.

Cost analysis, healthcare policy and the role of cost analysts

Cost analysis is an integral part of any healthcare policy decision-making process. It helps to inform decision makers on the cost implications of proposed policies, and can also be used as a tool to help determine whether or not a particular policy is financially feasible.

The role of cost analysts in healthcare policy development has been well documented by researchers, but there remains much debate about how best to incorporate them into these processes. Some argue that cost analysis should only be done at an early stage, before any decisions are made about what kinds of treatments will be available under new coverage arrangements; others believe it’s necessary at all stages because the costs associated with different types of treatments may vary significantly depending on when they’re used (e.g., emergency care versus elective surgery).

Overview of economic evaluation methods

• Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is the most common way to determine the cost-effectiveness of health care interventions. This method looks at both short-term costs and long-term benefits, and compares them with other options for providing care or services. CEA can help evaluate whether a new policy or treatment will be more effective than current practices in reducing costs or improving outcomes.

• Cost-utility analysis (CUA) is a form of CEA that focuses on how much money you’ll save if your proposed intervention leads to greater quality or efficiency in delivering healthcare services. CUA typically uses sets of hypothetical patients who have different health conditions, but all would benefit from receiving certain treatments or procedures—for example, colonoscopies instead of CT scans—and then calculates how much they’ll spend out of pocket on those procedures as well as what kind of difference those treatments make over time.

• The National Quality Forum’s Health Outcomes Institute also has developed an approach called “Health Economic Models” (HEM). HEM helps identify which factors are most responsible for determining whether people receive good care at low cost by using data such as patient demographics along with information about available resources within an area where one wants to focus efforts toward improving outcomes while reducing spending overall

Issues in the implementation of economic evaluations

There are several issues that arise when considering the implementation of economic evaluations. These include:

• The importance of cost-effectiveness analysis. Economic analyses can be very useful for informing decision-making about health care policy, but they also need to be interpreted with caution. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is an approach used to evaluate the value for money in healthcare interventions and products by comparing their costs with their benefits or harms (Ganzini & Stephens 2016). However, CEA can be misinterpreted as being synonymous with cost minimization or efficiency savings alone. In fact, CEA should only be used alongside other methods such as qualitative research where users have access to more information about specific people’s experiences (McGregor 2014).

• The need for a systematic approach towards cost analysis. It is important that any study examining how much money should be spent on particular services has been rigorously conducted using an objective process; otherwise there could be bias introduced into its findings which may result in incorrect decisions being made based on incomplete data sets (McGregor 2014).

The implementation of cost-effective healthcare policies requires a diligent, thorough, and balanced approach to the analysis of costs.

The implementation of cost-effective healthcare policies requires a diligent, thorough, and balanced approach to the analysis of costs. There are several methods that can be used for this purpose. Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), which is a method that compares the cost per life year gained with each treatment option against its effectiveness in improving health outcomes and patient satisfaction. Cost benefit analysis (CBA), which uses economic models to estimate how much money would be saved by introducing or modifying an intervention or service compared to what it would cost if that intervention did not exist at all. Finally there’s cost utility analysis (CUA), which looks at both short term costs as well as long term savings over time by comparing different therapies against each other based on their ability to meet patient needs while also providing value through quality improvement initiatives like prescription drug monitoring programs

Conclusion

Healthcare policy is a complex and challenging area of study, but it can be rewarding. There is much to learn from this area and it is one of the most important ways that we can improve healthcare delivery in our country.