Are management programmes for chronic heart failure cost-effective compared to standard care?
Management programmes for chronic heart failure are cost-effective, increasing life expectancy by an average of 84 days at an incremental cost of €8900 per QALY gained.
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: While management programmes (MPs) for chronic heart failure (CHF) are clinically effective, their cost-effectiveness remains uncertain. Thus, this study sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of MPs. METHODS AND RESULTS: We developed a Markov model to estimate life expectancy, quality-adjusted life expectancy, lifetime costs, and the incremental cost-effectiveness of MPs as compared to standard care. Standard care was defined by the EuroHeart Failure Survey for Germany, MP efficacy was derived from our recent meta-analysis and cost estimates were based on the German healthcare system. For a population with a mean age 67 years (35% female) at onset of CHF, our model predicted an average quality-adjusted life expectancy of 2.64 years for standard care and 2.83 years for MP. MP yielded additional lifetime costs of euro1700 resulting in an incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) of euro8900 (95% CI: dominant to 177,100) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that the ICUR was sensitive to age and sex. CONCLUSION: MPs increase life expectancy in patients with CHF by an average of 84 days and increase lifetime cost of care by approximately euro1700. MPs improve outcomes in a cost-effective manner, although they are not cost-saving on a lifetime horizon.
Göhler et al. (2008) studied this question.