New Simulation Determines Max Cost for Cost-effective Health Treatments

Health care costs continue to skyrocket in the US but those costs don’t necessarily translate into better population health. Recently, a team of researchers from Penn State led by David Vannes created a simulation to assess whether a treatment delivers enough value for its costs to be considered beneficial for population health after factoring in health care treatment costs, insurance premiums, quality of life, and life expectancy.

“We know that we are spending more and more on health care in the U.S. and that we’re getting less and less for it,” Vanness said. “We do a good job of developing new treatments in this country, but we don’t do a good job of covering everybody or making sure that people have access to basic health care. We’re spending a lot on our medical treatments, but many of those treatments just don’t have a lot of value.” Read more here.

(Source: Katie Bohn; Penn State; 11/2/20)