The Role of Financial and Economic Analyses to Support Healthcare Interventions

In the framework of a rising attention paid to the social well-being, an increasing amount of public funding is being allocated to strengthen healthcare systems and to guarantee fair and full access to medical care. Public interventions in the healthcare field are notably intricate, due to the several heterogeneous outcomes impacting on the entire society. The assessment of health programmes and projects is fundamental to determine the appropriateness of a public expenditure from a social perspective. The cost-benefit analysis is recommended as an assessment tool to support the decision-making processes, especially in the healthcare sector. The applicability of this tool is strictly related to the method for the monetary quantification of positive and negative impacts generated by an intervention. Starting from the comparison of the methodologies for this quantification illustrated in the reference literature, the objective of this work concerns the proposal of guidelines useful to monetize the effects associated with interventions in the healthcare sector.