Does meta-analysis of economic evaluations have the potential to play a role in healthcare decision-making in the United States?

Abstract

The current use of economic evidence in the decision-making process in the US is increasing. Meta-analysis of economic evaluations (MAEE) has gained recognition in recent years and can support decision-making at the global level or for countries with resource constraints. The focus of this article is to demonstrate how MAEE may contribute to the decision-making process in the US healthcare system. We demonstrated that MAEE can provide an efficient mechanism to quantitatively summarize cost-effectiveness findings based on all existing studies from the US answering the same question across different assumptions. This sort of evidence is important for US policymakers to support policy decision-making. MAEE methods can streamline the process of reviewing complex economic models and their findings, which has been previously reported by stakeholders as a barrier to the use of economic evidence in decision-making in the US. However, the currently proposed method may not fully address the issue of heterogeneity observed among MAEEs. There is a critical need to explore sources of heterogeneity and develop a standardized approach to handle it to improve the efficiency and acceptability of future MAEEs.