IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/hecrev/v11y2021i1d10.1186_s13561-020-00298-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Micro-costing in health and medicine: a critical appraisal

Author

Listed:
  • Xiao Xu

    (Yale School of Medicine)

  • Christina M. Lazar

    (Yale School of Medicine)

  • Jennifer Prah Ruger

    (Perelman School of Medicine, The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Background 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 unit cost data to generate precise estimates of economic costs. Micro-costing studies have not been critically appraised. Methods Critical appraisal of micro-costing studies in English. Studies fully or predominantly employing micro-costing were appraised for methodological and reporting quality through economic evaluation guidelines (Evers, Drummond, Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS), Fukuda and Imanaka checklists). Following the Panel on Cost Effectiveness in Health and Medicine, micro-costing studies were defined as involving “direct enumeration and costing out of every input consumed in the treatment of a particular patient.” Results Full or predominant micro-costing studies included neoplasms (18.5%), infectious and parasitic diseases (17.9%), and diseases of circulatory systems (10.8%) as the most studied diseases. 36.9% were in the United States and 34.9% were in Europe. 33.8% did not report analytic perspective, 32.8% did not report price year, 3.6% did not inflation adjust cost data, and 44.1% did not specify inflation adjustment. 86.2% did not separately report unit costs and resource utilization quantity, 14.9 and 19.5% did not provide sufficient detail to assess appropriateness of measured physical units or valued costs. Conclusions Micro-costing studies vary widely in methodological and reporting quality, highlighting the need to standardize methods and reporting of micro-costing studies and develop tools for their evaluation.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiao Xu & Christina M. Lazar & Jennifer Prah Ruger, 2021. "Micro-costing in health and medicine: a critical appraisal," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-020-00298-5
    DOI: 10.1186/s13561-020-00298-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-020-00298-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13561-020-00298-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fiona M. Clement (Nee Shrive) & William A. Ghali & Cam Donaldson & Braden J. Manns, 2009. "The impact of using different costing methods on the results of an economic evaluation of cardiac care: microcosting vs gross‐costing approaches," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 377-388, April.
    2. Grégoire Mercier & Gérald Naro, 2014. "Costing Hospital Surgery Services: The Method Matters," Post-Print hal-01829947, HAL.
    3. Gregoire Mercier & Gerald Naro, 2014. "Costing Hospital Surgery Services: The Method Matters," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-7, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Chris Sampson’s journal round-up for 8th March 2021
      by Chris Sampson in The Academic Health Economists' Blog on 2021-03-08 12:00:01

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zuzana Špacírová & David Epstein & Leticia García-Mochón & Joan Rovira & Antonio Olry de Labry Lima & Jaime Espín, 2020. "A general framework for classifying costing methods for economic evaluation of health care," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(4), pages 529-542, June.
    2. Lucy Cunnama & Edina Sinanovic & Lebogang Ramma & Nicola Foster & Leigh Berrie & Wendy Stevens & Sebaka Molapo & Puleng Marokane & Kerrigan McCarthy & Gavin Churchyard & Anna Vassall, 2016. "Using Top‐down and Bottom‐up Costing Approaches in LMICs: The Case for Using Both to Assess the Incremental Costs of New Technologies at Scale," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(S1), pages 53-66, February.
    3. Adam D M Briggs & Peter Scarborough & Jane Wolstenholme, 2018. "Estimating comparable English healthcare costs for multiple diseases and unrelated future costs for use in health and public health economic modelling," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, May.
    4. Eva Glaeser & Bart Jacobs & Bernd Appelt & Elias Engelking & Ir Por & Kunthea Yem & Steffen Flessa, 2020. "Costing of Cesarean Sections in a Government and a Non-Governmental Hospital in Cambodia—A Prerequisite for Efficient and Fair Comprehensive Obstetric Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Sandra Sülz & Holger Wagenaar & Joris van de Klundert, 2021. "Have Dutch Hospitals Saved Lives and Reduced Costs? A longitudinal patient‐level analysis over the years 2013–2017," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2399-2408, September.
    6. Claudia Fischer & Susanne Mayer & Nataša Perić & Judit Simon, 2022. "Harmonization issues in unit costing of service use for multi-country, multi-sectoral health economic evaluations: a scoping review," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Richard Grieve & John Cairns & Simon G. Thompson, 2010. "Improving costing methods in multicentre economic evaluation: the use of multiple imputation for unit costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(8), pages 939-954, August.
    8. Mareike Heimeshoff & Helge Hollmeyer & Jonas Schreyögg & Oliver Tiemann & Doris Staab, 2012. "Cost of Illness of Cystic Fibrosis in Germany," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 30(9), pages 763-777, September.
    9. Siti Norain Azahar & Saperi Sulong & Wan Asyraf Wan Zaidi & Norliza Muhammad & Yusof Kamisah & Norliana Masbah, 2022. "Direct Medical Cost of Stroke and the Cost-Effectiveness of Direct Oral Anticoagulants in Atrial Fibrillation-Related Stroke: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Abdelbaste Hrifach & Coralie Brault & Sandrine Couray-Targe & Lionel Badet & Pascale Guerre & Christell Ganne & Hassan Serrier & Vanessa Labeye & Pierre Farge & Cyrille Colin, 2016. "Mixed method versus full top-down microcosting for organ recovery cost assessment in a French hospital group," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-7, December.
    11. Chrysanthos D. Christou & Eleni C. Athanasiadou & Andreas I. Tooulias & Argyrios Tzamalis & Georgios Tsoulfas, 2022. "The process of estimating the cost of surgery: Providing a practical framework for surgeons," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(4), pages 1926-1940, July.
    12. Grégoire Mercier & Gérald Naro, 2014. "Costing Hospital Surgery Services: The Method Matters," Post-Print hal-01829947, HAL.
    13. Letlhogonolo Makhele & Moliehi Matlala & Mncengeli Sibanda & Antony P. Martin & Brian Godman, 2019. "A Cost Analysis of Haemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis for the Management of End-Stage Renal Failure At an Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa," PharmacoEconomics - Open, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 631-641, December.
    14. Kludacz-Alessandri Magdalena, 2020. "The Relationship between Cost System Functionality, Management Accounting Practices, and Hospital Performance," Foundations of Management, Sciendo, vol. 12(1), pages 223-236, January.
    15. Alfredo Palacios & Carlos Rojas-Roque & Lucas González & Ariel Bardach & Agustín Ciapponi & Claudia Peckaitis & Andres Pichon-Riviere & Federico Augustovski, 2021. "Direct Medical Costs, Productivity Loss Costs and Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures in Women with Breast Cancer in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic Review," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 39(5), pages 485-502, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:11:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-020-00298-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.