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.
