Research Guidelines
VA researchers who are developing a proposal that includes cost determination or a cost-effectiveness analysis should review the HSR&D Cost Analyses Info for Applicants and Reviewers (available in our downloads section).
HERC has developed guidelines for economic analyses within QUERI projects. It briefly reviews standard cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and suggests additional analyses better suited to the needs of VA managers. The guidelines are available in our downloads section below.
The guidelines developed by the U.S. Public Health Service task force have been published as a book from Oxford University Press. This book is an essential tool for anyone conducting cost-effectiveness analysis.
Gold, M. R., J. E. Siegel, L. B. Russell, M. C. Weinstein. Cost-effectiveness in Health and Medicine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
View the Oxford University Press US General Catalog
A series of papers describing progress in identifying the cost of VA health care was published as a special supplement to Medical Care in 1999. This work was updated with a new series of paper that was published as a supplement to Medical Care Research and Review in 2003.
View the VA economic research supplements from 1999 and 2003
HERC was created to respond to recommendations made at a meeting on VA economic research. That meeting was organized by the HSR&D Management Decision Resource Center in February, 1998, and was attended by VA economists, health services researchers, clinicians, and managers. A consensus on the state of the art for VA cost analysis and recommendations for VA data policy, and research infrastructure were important to the development of the HERC strategic plan. A follow-up meeting, which continued the discussion on costs, was held at the 1999 HSR&D Annual Meeting available in our downloads section below.
