Healthcare in rural and underserved areas : Cost-effectiveness analysis of a physician deployment program to improve access

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a physician deployment program to improve access to healthcare in rural and underserved areas in the Philippines: Objectives

The objective of this study is to explore the cost-effectiveness of Doctor to the Barrios (DTTB), a physician deployment program in the Philippines.

Design

Cost-effectiveness analysis using decision tree models with a lifetime time horizon and probabilistic sensitivity analysis.

Setting

Societal and healthcare perspectives.

Population

Hypothetical cohort of children under 5 years in two provinces (Aklan and Nueva Ecija) and in a representative rural municipality.

Participants

None.

Interventions

DTTB’s impact on paediatric pneumonia and diarrhoea outcomes compared with a scenario without DTTB.

Main outcome measures

Costs, effectiveness (in terms of lives saved and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained) and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER).

Results

DTTB is cost-effective in the two provinces that were included in the study from societal and healthcare perspectives. Looking at a representative rural municipality, base case analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analyses suggest that DTTB has an ICER of 27 192 per QALY gained from a societal perspective. From a healthcare perspective, the base case ICER of DTTB is Philippine pesos (PHP) 71 839 per QALY gained and PHP 2 064 167 per life saved, and 10 000 Monte Carlo simulations produced similar average estimates. The cost per QALY of DTTB from a healthcare perspective is lower than the WHO recommended willingness-to-pay threshold of 100% of the country’s per-capita gross domestic product.

Conclusions

DTTB can be a cost-effective intervention, but its value varies by setting and the conditions of the municipality where it is implemented. By focusing on a narrow set of paediatric outcomes, this study has likely underestimated the health benefits of DTTB. Additional research is needed to understand the full extent of DTTB’s impact on the health of communities in rural and remote areas. Future cost-effectiveness analysis should empirically estimate various parameters and include other health conditions in addition to pneumonia and diarrhoea in children.