Posted by Michael Wonder on 05 Jul 2016
Unrelated future costs and unrelated future benefits: reflections on NICE Guide to the Methods of Technology Appraisal
3 July 2016 - This editorial considers the vexing issue of ‘unrelated future costs’ (for example, the costs of caring for people with dementia or kidney failure after preventing their deaths from a heart attack).
NICE guidance is not to take such costs into account in technology appraisals. However, standard appraisal practice involves modelling the benefits of those unrelated technologies.
The authors argue that there is a sound principled reason for including both the costs and benefits of unrelated care. Changing this practice would have material consequences for decisions about reimbursing particular technologies, and they urge future research to understand this better.
