Cost efficiency of Hospital based UNHS Programs. Although everyone talks about the importance of doing cost analyses related to early hearing detection and intervention, terms are frequently misused. It is important to define what we mean by some of the most frequently used terms. First, it is important to determine how much early hearing detection and intervention programs cost completely independent of the effects of such programs. Methodologies for estimating costs are well developed and relatively straight forward to apply.
Cost effectiveness is a second type of cost analysis.
By definition, the cost effectiveness of a program can only be determined if one program is being compared to another. It is inappropriate to say that program A is cost effective. In a cost-effectiveness comparison of two programs, the costs of each program are analyzed in the same way as the first type of cost analysis described above. However, the effects of each program are also calculated according to variables like the number of children per thousand identified, the age at which those children are fitted with amplification, scores on various measures of developmental functioning, etc. In this hypothetical example, program A would be more cost effective than program B. A cost-benefit study can be either comparative or applied to a single program.