Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio ICERs

Our results on benefits can be used with estimates of costs to calculate the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). The ICER, which could be interpreted as cost per life year gained resulting from introduction of new drugs in this group of studies, provides a standard metric with which to compare the productivity of health care across different types of products and different countries. Thus, the calculation of ICER provides useful information for improving the efficiency of resource allocation in a country. In addition, international comparison of ICERs for the same product provides useful information for better understanding performance of health care systems in different countries. 

TABLE 45.6 NICE Decisions Ranked by Incremental Cost-effectiveness Ratio (ICER) ... 

The resnlts of CEA are also expressed as a ratio—either as an average cost-effectiveness ratio (ACER) or as an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER). An ACER represents the total cost of a program or treatment alternative divided by its clinical ontcome to yield a ratio representing the doUar cost per specific clinical ontcome gained, independent of comparators. The ACER can be summarized as follows ... 

The key questions by the assessor are about an added benefit and about the medical value. In the Netherlands, the medical value is assessed unofficially by means of the Dunnings Funnel, which evaluates the candidates by defined criteria, e.g. necessity, effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness commonly calculated as incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER), and social arguments such as budget impact or own responsibility [42]. The societies willingness to pay for an additional quality-adjusted life year gained (QALY) is as follows [43 5] ... 

Related to the QALY is the ICER, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio, which is the cost per QALY gained. Table 45.6 shows the estimated ICERs for a range of new drugs submitted to NICE. ° NICE asks whether an intervention is cost-effective and should be funded free at the point of prescription. 

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