What is cost effectiveness analysis or CEA?
One definition is that CEAs–at least in the field of health care–measure the difference or ratio between cost of care and the benefits of care for a given intervention compared to an alternative treatment strategy. The intervention could be a new surgical procedure, a drug, a behavior modification program or any other intervention of interest.
How frequently are CEAs conducted?
Fairly commonly. In the past, CEAs were conducted primarily in Europe for health technology assessment (HTA) organizations such as the the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK. However, with the advent of new initiatives to measure care value by CMS, the advent of value-based insurance design initiatives by private and public payers, and the development of independent institutions that measure cost effectiveness, CEAs are on the rise.
Are there historical data on CEAs?
In fact there are. The Center for the Evalutation of Value and Risk in Health (CEVR) at Tufts University in fact has an entire registry of CEA studies. CEVR was founded by Peter Neumann and Joshua Cohen and has two databases: Cost-effectiveness Analysis Registry and the National Coverage Determinations Database. The CEVR CEA database has been used in a number of publications.
Can I get access to the CEA registry?
The CEVR website does allow to search for CEA articles that are in their registry here. The CEA registry FAQs are also helpful.