Articles

Convergence in public health expenditure across the Sub-Saharan African countries: does club convergence matter?

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that currently face enormous healthcare challenges have implemented national health policies focusing on regional or international health commitments. These health commitmen...

Authors: Ousmane Traoré

Distributed education enables distributed economic impact: the economic contribution of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to communities in Canada

Medical schools with distributed or regional programs encourage people to live, work, and learn in communities that may be economically challenged. Local spending by the program, staff, teachers, and students ...

Authors: John C. Hogenbirk, David R. Robinson and Roger P. Strasser

Economic evaluation of HIV testing options for low-prevalence high-income countries: a systematic review

This study reviewed the economic evidence of rapid HIV testing versus conventional HIV testing in low-prevalence high-income countries; evaluated the methodological quality of existing economic evaluations of ...

Authors: Olanrewaju Medu, Adegboyega Lawal, Doug Coyle and Kevin Pottie

Investing preventive care and economic development in ageing societies: empirical evidences from OECD countries

The proportion of the elderly aged 65 years old or above will reach 16% in 2050 worldwide. Early investment in effective prevention would generally reduce the morbidity, complication, functional disability, an...

Authors: Fuhmei Wang and Jung-Der Wang

Analytical methods to assess the impacts of activity-based funding (ABF): a scoping review

Activity-Based Funding (ABF) has been implemented across many countries as a means to incentivise efficient hospital care delivery and resource use. Previous reviews have assessed the impact of ABF implementat...

Authors: Gintare Valentelyte, Conor Keegan and Jan Sorensen

Mendelian randomization: estimation of inpatient hospital costs attributable to obesity

Mendelian Randomization is a type of instrumental variable (IV) analysis that uses inherited genetic variants as instruments to estimate causal effects attributable to genetic factors. This study aims to estim...

Authors: Katherine Dick, John E. Schneider, Andrew Briggs, Pascal Lecomte, Stephane A. Regnier and Michael Lean

Can financial payments incentivize short-term smoking cessation in orthopaedic trauma patients? Evidence from a discrete choice experiment

Smoking increases the risk of complications and related costs after an orthopaedic fracture. Research in other populations suggests that a one-time payment may incentivize smoking cessation. However, little is...

Authors: Dana Alkhoury, Jared Atchison, Antonio J. Trujillo, Kimberly Oslin, Katherine P. Frey, Robert V. O’Toole, Renan C. Castillo and Nathan N. O’Hara

Preferences of patients with asthma or COPD for treatments in pulmonary rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) aims to improve disease control in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. However, the success of PR-programs depends on the patients’ participatio...

Authors: Kathrin Damm, Heidrun Lingner, Katharina Schmidt, Ines Aumann-Suslin, Heike Buhr-Schinner, Jochen van der Meyden and Konrad Schultz

Time-to-event analysis in economic evaluations: a comparison of modelling methods to assess the cost-effectiveness of transplanting a marginal quality kidney

Economic-evaluations using decision analytic models such as Markov-models (MM), and discrete-event-simulations (DES) are high value adds in allocating resources. The choice of modelling method is critical beca...

Authors: Sameera Senanayake, Nicholas Graves, Helen Healy, Keshwar Baboolal, Adrian Barnett and Sanjeewa Kularatna

Note from the editor, January 2021

Authors: J.-Matthias Graf von der Schulenburg, Sebastian Braun and Jan Zeidler

Commentary: on the effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel data analysis

This commentary assesses critically the published article in the Health Economics Review. 2020; 10 (1), 1–9. It explains the effects of health expenditure on infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa using a panel d...

Authors: Mwoya Byaro

Development of a pharmacoeconomic registry: an example using hormonal contraceptives

Disease-specific registries, documenting costs and probabilities from pharmacoeconomic studies along with health state utility values from quality-of-life studies could serve as a resource to guide researchers...

Authors: Annesha White, Meenakshi Srinivasan, La Marcus Wingate, Samuel Peasah and Marc Fleming

Arrangements with the NHS for providing healthcare services: do they improve financial performance of private for-profit hospitals in Spain?

In developed countries around the world there is a trend to enhance the public-private collaboration in healthcare. In Spain, a decentralized country with a NHS funded with taxes and universal coverage, commis...

Authors: María Victoria Ruiz-Mallorquí, Inmaculada Aguiar-Díaz and Beatriz González- López Valcárcel

“Top-down bottom-up” estimation of per capita cost of new-born care interventions in four regions of Ghana: beyond implementation to scalability and sustainability

Limited financial, human and material health resources coupled with increasing demand for new-born care services require efficiency in health systems to maximize the available sources for improved health outco...

Authors: Robert Kaba Alhassan, Edward Nketiah-Amponsah, Nana A. Y. Twum-Danso, John Bawa, Williams Kwarah, Sebnem Ucer and Abdul Fatawu Ibn Abass

Telemedical emergency services: central or decentral coordination?

Teleemergency doctors support ambulance cars at the emergency site by means of telemedicine. Currently, each district has its own teleemergency doctor office (decentralized solution). This paper analyses the a...

Authors: Steffen Fleßa, Rebekka Suess, Julia Kuntosch, Markus Krohn, Bibiana Metelmann, Joachim Paul Hasebrook, Peter Brinkrolf, Klaus Hahnenkamp, Dorothea Kohnen and Camilla Metelmann

What drives different treatment choices? Investigation of hospital ownership, system membership and competition

Differences in ownership types have attracted considerable interest because of policy implications. Moreover, competition in hospital markets is promoted to reduce health care spending. However, the effects of...

Authors: Esra Eren Bayindir and Jonas Schreyögg

Grocery food taxes and U.S. county obesity and diabetes rates

Grocery food taxes represent a stable tax revenue stream for state and municipal government during times of adverse economic shocks such as that observed under the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic....

Authors: Lingxiao Wang, Yuqing Zheng, Steven Buck, Diansheng Dong and Harry M. Kaiser

Can adaptive clinical trials help to solve the productivity crisis of the pharmaceutical industry? - a scenario analysis

The productivity of pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) investments is declining due to high failure rates in clinical research. Recently, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) acknowledged that ...

Authors: Jörg Mahlich, Arne Bartol and Srirangan Dheban

Health economic evaluations comparing faecal microbiota transplantation with antibiotics for treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection: a systematic review

Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is increasingly being used in the treatment of recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). Health economic evaluations may support decision-making regarding the im...

Authors: Lianna Hede Hammeken, Simon Mark Dahl Baunwall, Christian Lodberg Hvas and Lars Holger Ehlers

Practices of decision making in priority setting and resource allocation: a scoping review and narrative synthesis of existing frameworks

Due to growing expenditures, health systems have been pushed to improve decision-making practices on resource allocation. This study aimed to identify which practices of priority setting and resource allocatio...

Authors: Brayan V. Seixas, François Dionne and Craig Mitton

Micro-costing in health and medicine: a critical appraisal

Concerns about rising health care costs require rigorous economic study to inform clinical and policy decision-making. Micro-costing is a cost estimation methodology employing detailed resource utilization and...

Authors: Xiao Xu, Christina M. Lazar and Jennifer Prah Ruger

Custom-made health-care: an experimental investigation

Physicians’ financial interests might conflict with the best service to patients. It is essential to gain a thorough understanding of the effect of remuneration systems on physician behaviour.

Authors: Claudia Keser, Claude Montmarquette, Martin Schmidt and Cornelius Schnitzler

Application study of the EQ-5D-5L in oncology: linking self-reported quality of life of patients with advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer to clinical data from a German tumor registry

The EQ-5D-5L questionnaire is used in oncology to generate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) weights and corresponding health states. The purpose was to explore the relationship between demographic and cl...

Authors: Kathrin Borchert, Christian Jacob, Natalie Wetzel, Martina Jänicke, Egbert Eggers, Annette Sauer, Norbert Marschner, Julia Altevers, Thomas Mittendorf and Wolfgang Greiner

Systematic review and validity assessment of methods used in discrete choice experiments of primary healthcare professionals

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) have been used to measure patient and healthcare professionals preferences in a range of settings internationally. Using DCEs in primary care is valuable for determining how ...

Authors: Gregory Merlo, Mieke van Driel and Lisa Hall

Comparison of the cost of illness of primary liver cancer between Japan and Taiwan

Primary liver cancer (PLC) is the fifth and second leading cause of death in Japan and Taiwan, respectively. The aim of this study was to compare the economic burden of PLC between the two countries using the ...

Authors: Yinghui Wu, Kunichika Matsumoto, Ya-Mei Chen, Yu-Chi Tung, Tzu-Ying Chiu and Tomonori Hasegawa

Nonparametric estimation of a primary care production function in urban Brazil

The Brazilian public health system is one of the largest health systems in the world, with a mandate to deliver medical care to more than 200 million Brazilians. The objective of this study is to estimate a pr...

Authors: Bruno Wichmann and Roberta Wichmann

Factors related to excessive out-of-pocket expenditures among the ultra-poor after discontinuity of PBF: a cross-sectional study in Burkina Faso

Measuring progress towards financial risk protection for the poorest is essential within the framework of Universal Health Coverage. The study assessed the level of out-of-pocket expenditure and factors associ...

Authors: Yvonne Beaugé, Valéry Ridde, Emmanuel Bonnet, Sidibé Souleymane, Naasegnibe Kuunibe and Manuela De Allegri

Economic analysis of sugammadex versus neostigmine for reversal of neuromuscular blockade for laparoscopic surgery in China

Neuromuscular blockade and pneumoperitoneum (PP) are important factors to ensure successful laparoscopic surgery. However, residual neuromuscular blockade (rNMB) and PP are associated with many unfavorable com...

Authors: Maodong Ren, Ying Wang, Yan Luo, Jia Fang, Yongji Lu and Jianwei Xuan

Costing of helicopter emergency services- a strategic simulation based on the example of a German rural region

Helicopter emergency services (HEMS) are of increasing relevance for emergency medical services (EMS) of developed countries. Despite the known cost intensity of HEMS, there is only very limited knowledge of i...

Authors: Johann Röper, Markus Krohn, Steffen Fleßa and Karl-Christian Thies

The effect of a mystery shopper scheme on prescribing behavior in primary care: Results from a field experiment

Health care systems in many countries are characterized by limited availability of provider performance data that can be used to design and implement welfare improving reforms in the health sector. We question...

Authors: Roland Cheo, Ge Ge, Geir Godager, Rugang Liu, Jian Wang and Qiqi Wang

Considering the societal perspective in economic evaluations: a systematic review in the case of depression

Depressive disorders are associated with a high burden of disease. However, due to the burden posed by the disease on not only the sufferers, but also on their relatives, there is an ongoing debate about which...

Authors: Juliane Andrea Duevel, Lena Hasemann, Luz María Peña-Longobardo, Beatriz Rodríguez-Sánchez, Isaac Aranda-Reneo, Juan Oliva-Moreno, Julio López-Bastida and Wolfgang Greiner

Effects of health insurance on patient demand for physician services

In recent years, policymakers have sought to reduce health disparities between the insured and uninsured through a federal health insurance expansion policy; however, disparities continue to persist among the ...

Authors: Jerome Dugan

Is greater generic competition also linked to lower drug prices in South Korea?

Although the association between the price of generic drugs and market competitiveness has been explored in various high-income countries, this association has not been empirically evaluated in South Korea. We...

Authors: Kyung-Bok Son

Cost of care for persons with dementia: using a discrete-time Markov chain approach with administrative and clinical data from the dementia service Centres in Austria

There is growing evidence that the cost for dementia care will increase rapidly in the coming years. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to determine the economic impact of treating clients with dementi...

Authors: Alexander Braun, Paulina Kurzmann, Margit Höfler, Gottfried Haber and Stefanie Auer

Budgeting challenges on the path towards universal health coverage: the case of Benin

In its pursuance of universal health coverage (UHC), the government of Benin is piloting a project of mandatory social insurance for health entitled “ARCH”.

Authors: Elisabeth Paul, N’koué Emmanuel Sambiéni, Jean-Pierre Wangbe, Fabienne Fecher and Marc Bourgeois

Comorbidities and HCV coinfection in the management of HIV+ patients: evidence from the Italian clinical practice

Since HIV+ treatment has become more effective, the average age of people living with HIV (PLWHIV) has increased, and consequently the incidence of developing comorbidities, making the clinical and economic ma...

Authors: Elisabetta Garagiola, Emanuela Foglia, Lucrezia Ferrario, Paola Meraviglia, Alessandro Tebini, Barbara Menzaghi, Chiara Atzori, Giuliano Rizzardini, Teresa Bini, Antonella D’Arminio Monforte and Davide Croce

Patient and health system costs of managing pregnancy and birth-related complications in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review

Morbidity and mortality due to pregnancy and childbearing are high in developing countries. This study aims to estimate patient and health system costs of managing pregnancy and birth-related complications in ...

Authors: Amani Thomas Mori, Peter Binyaruka, Peter Hangoma, Bjarne Robberstad and Ingvild Sandoy

Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Public Hospitals: The Case of Saudi Arabia

In this study, we investigate the effect of the external environmental and institutional factors on the efficiency and the performance of the public hospitals affiliated to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the ...

Authors: Ahmed D. Alatawi, Louis W. Niessen and Jahangir A. M. Khan

Correction to: Health economic evaluation of an internet intervention for depression (deprexis), a randomized controlled trial

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Viola Gräfe, Steffen Moritz and Wolfgang Greiner

Hospital costs associated with post-traumatic stress disorder in somatic patients: a retrospective study

Post-traumatic stress disorder is likely to affect clinical courses in the somatic hospital ward when appearing as comorbidity. Thus, this study aimed to assess the costs associated with comorbid post-traumati...

Authors: Rieka von der Warth, Philip Hehn, Jan Wolff and Klaus Kaier

The impact of high intensity care around birth on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes

An equitable and affordable healthcare system requires a constant search for the optimal way to deliver increasingly expensive neonatal care. Therefore, evaluating the impact of hospital intensity around birth...

Authors: Corneliu Bolbocean and Michael Shevell

Correction to: Determinants of healthcare seeking and out-of-pocket expenditures in a “free” healthcare system: evidence from rural Malawi

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Meike Irene Nakovics, Stephan Brenner, Grace Bongololo, Jobiba Chinkhumba, Olivier Kalmus, Gerald Leppert and Manuela De Allegri

Trends in and drivers of healthcare expenditure in the English NHS: a retrospective analysis

In England, rises in healthcare expenditure consistently outpace growth in both GDP and total public expenditure. To ensure the National Health Service (NHS) remains financially sustainable, relevant data on h...

Authors: Idaira Rodriguez Santana, María José Aragón, Nigel Rice and Anne Rosemary Mason

Health economic evaluation of an internet intervention for depression (deprexis), a randomized controlled trial

Depressive disorders often remain undiagnosed or are treated inadequately. Online-based programs may reduce the present treatment gap for depressive disorders and reduce disease-related costs. This study aimed...

Authors: Viola Gräfe, Steffen Moritz and Wolfgang Greiner

Using discrete choice experiments to measure preferences for hard to observe choice attributes to inform health policy decisions

Models of preferences in health services research (HSR) and Health Economics are often defined by readily available information, such as that captured in claims data and electronic health records. Yet many imp...

Authors: Eline van den Broek-Altenburg and Adam Atherly

Healthcare consumption after a change in health insurance coverage: a French quasi-natural experiment

Compared with the number of studies performed in the United States, few studies have been conducted on the link between health insurance and healthcare consumption in Europe, likely because most European count...

Authors: Christine Sevilla-Dedieu, Nathalie Billaudeau and Alain Paraponaris

A cost-effectiveness analysis model of Preventicus atrial fibrillation screening from the point of view of statutory health insurance in Germany

With atrial fibrillation (AF) the risk of stroke is 4.2-fold increased to a comparable population without AF. This risk decreases by up to 70% if AF is detected early enough and effective stroke preventive mea...

Authors: Ralf Birkemeyer, Alfred Müller, Steffen Wahler and Johann-Matthias von der Schulenburg

Longitudinal changes and determinants of parental willingness to pay for the prevention of childhood overweight and obesity

Willingness to Pay (WTP) is an alternative to measure quality-adjusted life years for cost-effectiveness analyses. The aim was to evaluate longitudinal changes and determinants of parental WTP for the preventi...

Authors: Romy Lauer, Meike Traub, Sylvia Hansen, Reinhold Kilian, Jürgen Michael Steinacker and Dorothea Kesztyüs

Determinants of healthcare seeking and out-of-pocket expenditures in a “free” healthcare system: evidence from rural Malawi

Monitoring financial protection is a key component in achieving Universal Health Coverage, even for health systems that grant their citizens access to care free-of-charge. Our study investigated out-of-pocket ...

Authors: Meike Irene Nakovics, Stephan Brenner, Grace Bongololo, Jobiba Chinkhumba, Olivier Kalmus, Gerald Leppert and Manuela De Allegri

The impact of reimbursement negotiations on cost and availability of new pharmaceuticals: evidence from an online experiment

The necessity to measure and reward “value for money” of new pharmaceuticals has become central in health policy debates, as much as the requirement to assess the “willingness to pay” for an additional, qualit...

Authors: Dominik J. Wettstein and Stefan Boes