Cost-benefit analysis

Cost-benefit analysis in healthcare evaluation is a comparative method that values both the costs of interventions and their resulting benefits (including health outcomes) in monetary terms. This allows for the comparison of two or more treatment options using the net monetary benefit, calculated as the monetary value of the benefits minus the costs. Monetary valuations of benefits are commonly obtained from willingness-to-pay surveys or discrete choice experiments. While widely used in other sectors, CBA is less common in health technology assessment due to the challenges of assigning monetary values to health outcomes, such as (increased) survival. Its application in healthcare has primarily focused on large capital development projects (e.g. new hospital facilities) or interventions improving waiting times or service access.