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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Health Economics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1428130

The Valuation of Elderly Homecare Services Under a Joint Medical-Social Budgetary Perspective

Provisionally accepted
Eman Leung Eman Leung 1,2Jingjing Guan Jingjing Guan 3Amanda CHU Amanda CHU 4Chun Cheung Ching Chun Cheung Ching 2Yilin LIU Yilin LIU 2Frank Chen Frank Chen 1*
  • 1 Department of Management Sciences, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, China
  • 3 Epitelligencehk, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 4 The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, SAR China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background. Homecare, a cornerstone of public health, is essential for health systems to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal health coverage while maintaining its own sustainability. Notwithstanding homecare's system-level significance, there is a lack of economic evaluations of homecare services in terms of their system-wide cost-savings. Specifically, decisions informed by a joint medical-social budgetary perspective can maximize the allocative efficiency of assigning a diverse service mix to address the complex needs of the elderly population. However, little is known regarding which homecare service mix is most system-wide cost-effective when paired with which clinical profiles.Methods. Valuation of homecare's complex interventions was performed under a generalized cost-effectiveness analysis (GCEA) framework with proportional hazard-adjusted metrics representing the common numeraire between medical and social care.Results. Instrumental homecare, on its own or combined with either one or both of the other homecare services, yielded the greatest cost savings compared to other services or the lack thereof. When expressed under a joint medical-social budgetary perspective, instrumental

    Keywords: homecare, Generalized cost-effectiveness analysis, Allocative efficiency, Aging in place, Integrated Care

    Received: 17 May 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Leung, Guan, CHU, Ching, LIU and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Frank Chen, Department of Management Sciences, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.