| Session Title: Costs are All That Matters (With Studies That Prove It): About and Beyond Cost-inclusive Evaluation |
| Expert Lecture Session 540 to be held in Liberty Ballroom Section A on Friday, November 9, 10:20 AM to 11:05 AM |
| Sponsored by the Costs, Effectiveness, Benefits, and Economics TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Brian Yates, American University, brian.yates@mac.com |
| Presenter(s): |
| Brian Yates, American University, brian.yates@mac.com |
| Abstract: [Presented tongue-in-cheek] Three quantitative studies show that costs are important to evaluate; outcomes are not, actually. Mental health services are found to differ not in effectiveness to any appreciable degree, but to potentially differ in cost by several orders of magnitude. Cost per pound (lost) also was found to differ by one or more orders of magnitude between obesity treatments. And, in a well-funded attempt to prevent substance abuse, the least expensive (if somewhat iatrogenic) component was used most. Programs are offered as entitlements anyway: decision-makers need to know which "standard practice" costs least. Ways to cope with the superior importance of costs are offered, to aid evaluators with this Zeitschrift. "Cost-inclusive" evaluation is offered as a helpful, if mandatory, reconceptualization. We also might measure monetary and monetizable outcomes of programs, including savings of future expenditures and enhancement of client income, as well as costs. :-) |