How would comparative effectiveness be used to justify the Least Costly Alternative in the case of the Chilean miners.
It cost $33 million to rescue 33 Chilean miners. Each made $12000 a year. If we use the QALY approach and assume $50000 per QALY it was obviously a waste of Chile's time and money to undertake the successful operation. Couldn't that money be better spent on disease management programs? There would be money left over to pay the families of the miners after the mine had been sealed up. Too bad that Health Dialog didnt have a shared decision making tool to discourage the miners from asking for such an expensive, invasive and untested procedure. At least Chile should have waited to let AHRQ conduct a CER review before deciding to pay for the rescue.
It cost $33 million to rescue 33 Chilean miners. Each made $12000 a year. If we use the QALY approach and assume $50000 per QALY it was obviously a waste of Chile's time and money to undertake the successful operation. Couldn't that money be better spent on disease management programs? There would be money left over to pay the families of the miners after the mine had been sealed up. Too bad that Health Dialog didnt have a shared decision making tool to discourage the miners from asking for such an expensive, invasive and untested procedure. At least Chile should have waited to let AHRQ conduct a CER review before deciding to pay for the rescue.
