Produced by the Health System Performance Research Network.Accurate person-level costing data has wide application in research and is often used to estimate cost-of-illness, cost effectiveness studies and for efficiency analysis. The primary objective of this report is to introduce a costing methodology that can be used to derive person-level costs in a variety of healthcare settings, including inpatient acute care, ambulatory emergency department and same day surgery, inpatient rehabilitation, inpatient mental health, complex continuing care, long-term care, home care and physician services. The costing approach presented here relies on data that is routinely available in Ontario, Canada. It is expected that with some adaptation, the approach could be used in other jurisdictions.
This report specifies how person-level costs can be derived by linking utilization data from administrative healthcare databases and both individual provider and corporate cost information collected by the MOHLTC. Person-level costing data can be aggregated to estimate the direct cost of publicly-paid healthcare services for any population or sector of interest (e.g. diabetics in primary care or cancer survivors across the entire healthcare system) and over any time period for which cost and utilization data are available.Supported by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care
