IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i6p3500-d772176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In Search for Comparability: The PECUNIA Reference Unit Costs for Health and Social Care Services in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Susanne Mayer

    (Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15/1, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

  • Michael Berger

    (Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15/1, 1090 Vienna, Austria)

  • Alexander Konnopka

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, University Medical Center Hamburg, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
    Department Psychology, MSH Medical School Hamburg, 20457 Hamburg, Germany)

  • Valentin Brodszky

    (Department of Health Economics, Institute of Economic and Public Policy, Corvinus University of Budapest, 1093 Budapest, Hungary)

  • Silvia M. A. A. Evers

    (Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI), Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML), Maastricht University, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands
    Centre of Economic Evaluation & Machine Learning, Trimbos Institute, 3521 VS Utrecht, The Netherlands)

  • Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen

    (Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands)

  • Mencia R. Guitérrez-Colosia

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 41704 Dos Hermanas, Spain
    Asociación Científica Psicost, 41704 Dos Hermanas, Spain)

  • Luis Salvador-Carulla

    (Health Research Institute, Faculty of Health, University of Canberra, Canberra 2617, Australia
    Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia)

  • A-La Park

    (Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London WC2A 2AE, UK)

  • William Hollingworth

    (Department of Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, 1-5 Whiteladies Rd, Bristol BS8 1NU, UK)

  • Lidia García-Pérez

    (Servicio de Evaluación, Servicio Canario de la Salud (SESCS), Camino Candelaria Nº 44, 1ª Planta, El Rosario, 38109 Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain)

  • Judit Simon

    (Department of Health Economics, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15/1, 1090 Vienna, Austria
    Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK)

  • on behalf of the PECUNIA Group

    (Membership of the PECUNIA Group is provided in the Acknowledgments.)

Abstract

Improving the efficiency of mental healthcare service delivery by learning from international best-practice examples requires valid data, including robust unit costs, which currently often lack cross-country comparability. The European ProgrammE in Costing, resource use measurement and outcome valuation for Use in multi-sectoral National and International health economic evaluAtions (PECUNIA) aimed to harmonize the international unit cost development. This article presents the methodology and set of 36 externally validated, standardized reference unit costs (RUCs) for five health and social care services (general practitioner, dentist, help-line, day-care center, nursing home) in Austria, England, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, and Spain based on unambiguous service definitions using the extended DESDE PECUNIA coding framework. The resulting PECUNIA RUCs are largely comparable across countries, with any causes for deviations (e.g., country-specific scope of services) transparently documented. Even under standardized methods, notable limitations due to data-driven divergences in key costing parameters remain. Increased cross-country comparability by adopting a uniform methodology and definitions can advance the quality of evidence-based policy guidance derived from health economic evaluations. The PECUNIA RUCs are available free of charge and aim to significantly improve the quality and feasibility of future economic evaluations and their transferability across mental health systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanne Mayer & Michael Berger & Alexander Konnopka & Valentin Brodszky & Silvia M. A. A. Evers & Leona Hakkaart-van Roijen & Mencia R. Guitérrez-Colosia & Luis Salvador-Carulla & A-La Park & William , 2022. "In Search for Comparability: The PECUNIA Reference Unit Costs for Health and Social Care Services in Europe," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3500-:d:772176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3500/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/6/3500/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reeves, Aaron & McKee, Martin & Basu, Sanjay & Stuckler, David, 2014. "The political economy of austerity and healthcare: Cross-national analysis of expenditure changes in 27 European nations 1995–2011," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 1-8.
    2. Zsolt Mogyorosy & Peter Smith, 2005. "The main methodological issues in costing health care services: A literature review," Working Papers 007cherp, Centre for Health Economics, University of York.
    3. Berger, Michael & Sommersguter-Reichmann, Margit & Czypionka, Thomas, 2020. "Determinants of soft budget constraints: How public debt affects hospital performance in Austria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 249(C).
    4. Colin H. Ridyard & Dyfrig A. Hughes & DIRUM Team, 2015. "Taxonomy for Methods of Resource Use Measurement," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(3), pages 372-378, March.
    5. Luca M. M. Janssen & Ruben M. W. A. Drost & Aggie T. G. Paulus & Kirsty Garfield & William Hollingworth & Sian Noble & Joanna C. Thorn & Irina Pokhilenko & Silvia M. A. A. Evers, 2021. "Aspects and Challenges of Resource Use Measurement in Health Economics: Towards a Comprehensive Measurement Framework," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 39(9), pages 983-993, September.
    6. Raymond Oppong & Sue Jowett & Tracy E Roberts, 2015. "Economic Evaluation alongside Multinational Studies: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Michael Berger & Thomas Czypionka, 2021. "Regional medical practice variation in high-cost healthcare services," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(6), pages 917-929, August.
    8. Berger, Michael & Czypionka, Thomas, 2021. "Regional medical practice variation in high-cost healthcare services: evidence from diagnostic imaging in Austria," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112952, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Katschnig, Heinz & Straßmayr, Christa & Endel, Florian & Berger, Michael & Zauner, Günther & Kalseth, Jorid & Sfetcu, Raluca & Wahlbeck, Kristian & Tedeschi, Federico & Šprah, Lilijana, 2019. "Using national electronic health care registries for comparing the risk of psychiatric re-hospitalisation in six European countries: Opportunities and limitations," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(11), pages 1028-1035.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Susanne Mayer & Agata Łaszewska & Judit Simon, 2022. "Unit Costs in Health Economic Evaluations: Quo Vadis, Austria?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-12, December.

    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. M. Carreras & M. García-Goñi & P. Ibern & J. Coderch & L. Vall-Llosera & J. Inoriza, 2011. "Estimates of patient costs related with population morbidity: can indirect costs affect the results?," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 12(4), pages 289-295, August.
    2. Teresa Leão & Inês Campos-Matos & Clare Bambra & Giuliano Russo & Julian Perelman, 2018. "Welfare states, the Great Recession and health: Trends in educational inequalities in self-reported health in 26 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Hoa Thi Nguyen & Manuela Allegri & Jörg Heil & André Hennigs, 2023. "Population-Level Impact of Omitting Axillary Lymph Node Dissection in Early Breast Cancer Women: Evidence from an Economic Evaluation in Germany," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 275-287, March.
    4. Pokhilenko, I. & Kast, T. & Janssen, L. M.M. & Evers, S. M.A.A. & Paulus, A. T.G. & Simon, J. & Mayer, S. & Berger, M. & Konnopka, A. & Muntendorf, L. & Brodszky, V. & García-Pérez, L. & Park, A-La & , 2023. "International comparability of reference unit costs of education services: when harmonizing methodology is not enough (PECUNIA project)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117769, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Masanet, Erika, 2017. "Processes and experiences of Portugal’s international recruitment scheme of Colombian physicians: Did it work?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(8), pages 929-935.
    6. Frank G. Sandmann & Julie V. Robotham & Sarah R. Deeny & W. John Edmunds & Mark Jit, 2018. "Estimating the opportunity costs of bed‐days," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 592-605, March.
    7. repec:bla:glopol:v:8:y:2017:i:s2:p:5-6 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Diriba Feyisa & Kiddus Yitbarek & Teferi Daba, 2021. "Cost of provision of essential health Services in Public Health Centers of Jimma zone, Southwest Ethiopia; a provider perspective, the pointer for major area of public expenditure," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Josephine C. Jacobs & Paul G. Barnett, 2017. "Emergent Challenges in Determining Costs for Economic Evaluations," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 129-139, February.
    10. Berger, Michael & Six, Eva & Czypionka, Thomas, 2024. "Policy implications of heterogeneous demand reactions to changes in cost-sharing: patient-level evidence from Austria," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121162, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Carlos Rojas-Roque & Alfredo Palacios, 2023. "A Systematic Review of Health Economic Evaluations and Budget Impact Analyses to Inform Healthcare Decision-Making in Central America," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 419-440, May.
    12. Clemens, Timo & Michelsen, Kai & Commers, Matt & Garel, Pascal & Dowdeswell, Barrie & Brand, Helmut, 2014. "European hospital reforms in times of crisis: Aligning cost containment needs with plans for structural redesign?," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 6-14.
    13. 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.
    14. Leslie R. Zwerwer & Jan Kloka & Simon Pol & Maarten J. Postma & Kai Zacharowski & Antoinette D. I. Asselt & Benjamin Friedrichson, 2024. "Mechanical ventilation as a major driver of COVID-19 hospitalization costs: a costing study in a German setting," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, December.
    15. Isabel Casas & Jiti Gao & Bin Peng & Shangyu Xie, 2021. "Time‐varying income elasticities of healthcare expenditure for the OECD and Eurozone," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(3), pages 328-345, April.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Jelica Rastoka & Saša Petković & Dragana Radicic, 2022. "Impact of Entrepreneurship on the Quality of Public Health Sector Institutions and Policies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-25, January.
    19. Anna-Theresa Renner, 2020. "Inefficiencies in a healthcare system with a regulatory split of power: a spatial panel data analysis of avoidable hospitalisations in Austria," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 21(1), pages 85-104, February.
    20. M. Carreras & Manuel García-Goñi & Pere Ibern & J. Coderch & L. Vall-Llosera & José María Inoriza, 2009. "Estimates of patient costs related with population morbidity: Can indirect costs affect the results?," Economics Working Papers 1138, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    21. Klaus Kaier & Silvia Hils & Stefan Fetzer & Philip Hehn & Anja Schmid & Dieter Hauschke & Lioudmila Bogatyreva & Bernd Jänigen & Przemyslaw Pisarski, 2017. "Results of a randomized controlled trial analyzing telemedically supported case management in the first year after living donor kidney transplantation - a budget impact analysis from the healthcare pe," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:6:p:3500-:d:772176. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.