How should economic value be considered in treatment decisions for individual patients?

Abstract

Physicians' primary responsibility is to promote patients' well-being, which includes not causing financial harm. Physicians also have duties to prudently steward health care resources. Balancing these responsibilities requires recommending interventions likely to achieve patients' health goals while avoiding unnecessary expenditures. Cost-effectiveness data should be used to inform population-based conceptions of an intervention's value and are not intended to be used by individual clinicians offering recommendations to individual patients. But cost-effectiveness data should be incorporated into patient-clinician conversations about an intervention's affordability and its influence on adherence to a care plan, as these are key promoters of evidence-based practice, value-based care, and optimal outcomes.