Estimating production costs in the economic evaluation of health-care programs.

We propose a method for calculating the production costs of an intervention in a manner that accounts for differences in productive 'effort.' This method could be used within a cost-effectiveness analysis framework in the evaluation of new medical technologies, pharmaceuticals, treatment programs, or public health interventions. We apply it to show evidence in favor of implementing a newborn screening program to detect congenital hearing impairment. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.