The economic evaluation of Manitoba health lines in the management of congestive heart failure

Abstract

This study was to examine whether the Manitoba Provincial Health Contact program for congestive heart failure is cost-effective and/or cost-benefit intervention relative to the standard treatment. The benefit-cost ratio was calculated in terms of the program cost and the cost savings from averted healthcare visits in order to determine whether the program would pay for itself. Then I conducted a cost-effectiveness study in which outcomes were measured in terms of QALYs derived from the SF-36. Bootstrap-resampled incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were computed to allow us to take into account the uncertainty related to small sample size. This intervention program generated a net saving of $28,307. The cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that the Health Lines intervention can generate an additional QALY for $26,486 and Health Line plus Monitoring for $70,266. The findings demonstrate that the Health Lines strategy for congestive heart failure holds great promise.