The Innovation and Value Initiative (IVI) and AcademyHealth have developed a jointA research framework to understand the full range of economic impacts on patients and caregivers”
- direct medical expenses: Patient or caregiver payments to a healthcare provider or healthcare system.
- non-clinical medical expenses: Expenses not paid to the health care system as a direct result of seeking treatment.
- social influence: Economic impact may not be as obvious a measure, but has downstream effects such as time spent negotiating with insurance companies, compounded financial effects, or access to social services.
- Ability to work: Traditional measures of work, such as productivity, sick days, and vacations.
- Educational and Work Achievement: Effects such as career choice or education level.
- Impact on caregivers and families: These are the financial impacts on caregivers due to the primary patient’s illness or health condition
The framework also states that there are many underlying equity factors that are critical to a person’s health journey. Below is a more detailed list of the relevant components within each factor.Frankly, while the list of steering committee members and individuals interviewed is impressive, the end result is a list most of which have been listed as Group II Health and Medicine Cost-EffectivenessFurthermore, it is unclear how these component lists will change the way standard cost-effectiveness is performed in practice.Nonetheless, the stakeholders who created this document had real experience with the challenges of standard CEA, and the document is worth reading (full report here).
