Cost measurement is fundamental to all economic evaluations for healthcare, which have become increasingly important throughout the world in policy decision making concerning new medical [Page 224]interventions. Appropriate cost measurement can contribute to the efficient allocation of resources within the health system. The goal of cost measurement is to assess the costs that are needed to produce or are consequent to the outcomes of the intervention of interest, relative to an alterative intervention such as standard of care.

Cost measurement involves identifying, measuring, and valuing all relevant resource uses that are attributable to the medical interventions, including the resources needed for implementing the interventions and those that are associated with medical and nonmedical outcomes of the interventions. The costs related to a healthcare intervention and its ...