The cost of providing the intervention (exclusive of development costs) to each patient under the low and high utilization scenarios was $60, for a cost per 1% increase of $6.
Longer durations of effectiveness were associated with net cost savings for both office-based scenarios and the high utilization Internet scenario.
For the low utilization Internet deployment scenario, a decrease in costs to 77% of the total were associated with the target cost per QALY, while for the high utilization Internet scenario, costs inflated to 288% were related to target cost per QALY.
Regarding the supposed default alternative to inflation, in the full employment and high capacity utilization scenario that might call for a tax increase to cool it down, I don't see how default fits in or why it would even be considered.
Under the low use scenario, it was judged that one computer kiosk would be sufficient, while under the high use scenario it was estimated that at least three computer kiosks would be required to accommodate the hypothesized level of utilization.
Cost per QALY is at a level typically considered cost effective for the high utilization office kiosk and Internet scenarios at three months and for all scenarios at six months.
In its response yesterday, El Paso Merchant stated that it had "consistently made an effort to maintain high utilization" of the pipeline capacity.
