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Table 3 Overview of country-specific costing recommendations in the six selected European countries

From: Harmonization issues in unit costing of service use for multi-country, multi-sectoral health economic evaluations: a scoping review

 

Austria

England

Germany

Hungary

The Netherlands

Spain

Recommended level of guideline adherence

 Mandatory

  

xa

 

x

 

 Recommended

x

x

 

xb

  

 Voluntary

     

x

Perspective

 Societal

    

x

 

 Societal and health care

   

(x)c

 

x

 Health and social care

 

x

    

 Health care

  

x

   

 Not specified

x

     

Discounting recommended

x

x

x

x

x

x

 Discount rates costs (sensitivity analysis)

5% (3%-10%)

3.5% (1.5%)

3% (0%, 5%)

3.7% (2%-5%)

4% (not specified)

3% (0%, 5%)

Reporting of costs

 Separate reporting

x

x

x

xd

x

 

 Not explicitly mentioned

     

x

Adjustment for inflation/price indexation

 Adjustment to a common reference year

x

  

x

 

x

 Inflation of costs to the present

  

x

 

x

 

 No information found

 

x

    

Time horizon

 A lifelong time horizon

    

x

x

 Long enough to include all costs/outcomes/effects

 

x

x

x

x

x

 No information found

x

     

Periodicity of costing manual

 Annually

 

x

    

 Regularly

x

  

x

  

 As required for methodological reasons (approx. every 4 year)

    

x

 

 Irregularly

  

x

   

 No information found

     

x

  1. aThe recommendations stated in the German guidelines by IQWIG (Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care) are only binding for the IQWIG itself
  2. bThe application of the guideline is defined not by the user, but by the purpose of the analysis. The guideline applies to the assessment of all health technologies for decision making in public funding
  3. cSpecification in the Hungarian guideline: The recommended perspective is the healthcare perspective. However, if the benefits and costs are to a significant extent outside of the health care system (e.g. in the case of preventive health technologies), it is also suggested to add a social perspective to the analysis
  4. dCost and outcome results for the entire time horizon of the analysis should also be presented separately by health status and presented in tabular form