title: Cost-benefit analysis: a helpful tool for decision makers?
abstract: Cost-benefit analyses (CBA) claim to be an important basis for decision makers who are interested in a cost-effective approach to health care. But despite an increasing frequency in the number of CBA there is growing concern about their usefulness as a decision-making tool. Predominantly methodological controversies spread confusion and block their user-oriented development. The present article identifies and discusses necessary amendments of CBA from a practical point of view to narrow the existing gap between claim and actual efficiency: consideration of differing interests of differing parties in the health care sector, inclusion of qualitative aspects of medical events and a change in the temporal orientation towards prospective studies.
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making; D005060:Europe; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics*; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans