COST-UTILITY ANALYSIS OF PRIVATE CONTRACTING TO REDUCE PUBLIC WAITING TIMES FOR JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY.

Objectives: Earlier treatment of publicly funded patients may achieve health gains that justify the additional costs of reducing waiting times. This study reports on the cost-effectiveness of implementing a private contracting model to meet alternative maximum waiting time targets for publicly funded patients undergoing total knee replacement surgery in Australia.

Methods: A linked decision tree and cohort Markov model was developed and populated and validated using secondary data sources to represent the pathways, costs, and quality adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained of non-urgent patients with alternative waiting times for total knee replacement surgery to a maximum age of 100 years.