However, allocating resources is seldom a matter of simply choosing efficient programs. Just as choice is inevitable in health care, so are the trade-offs between efficient and equitable uses of health care resources. An economic evaluation systematically compares the key costs and benefits of competing health care programs to enable such judgements to be made. The appropriate economic evaluation technique depends on the question being addressed. If the question is whether to allocate resources to a program or whether to allocate more or less resources to it, the question concerns allocative efficiency.
Allocative efficiency describes how best to distribute resources across competing programs.
Often in health care, a decision has already been taken to fund a program and the question is how best to pursue a particular objective. The fundamental question for the SBN model of care is whether to allocate more resources to expand the program. For a variety of reasons, the SBN model of care does not fit neatly into the economic evaluation framework, and neither CBA nor CUA is likely to provide an immediate or useful answer to the resource allocation question. The question of who benefits from the SBN model of care, and how, is every bit as important as counting the costs of achieving those benefits. The SBN intervention is designed to improve the psychosocial care of women with breast cancer.