Ashley B. Coffield

Greater Use Of Preventive Services In U.S. Health Care Could Save Lives At Little Or No Cost

There is broad debate over whether preventive health services save money or represent a good investment. This paper analyzes the estimated cost of adopting a package of twenty proven preventive services--including tobacco cessation screening, alcohol abuse screening, and daily aspirin use--against the estimated savings that could be generated. We find that greater use of proven clinical preventive services in the United States could avert the loss of more than two million life-years annually. Whats more, increasing the use of these services from current levels to 90 percent in 2006 would result in total savings of

Prioritizing Clinical Preventive Services: A Review and Framework with Implications for Community Preventive Services

3.7 billion, or 0.2 percent of U.S. personal health care spending. These findings suggest that policy makers should pursue options that move the nation toward greater use of proven preventive services.

Priorities Among Effective Clinical Preventive Services : Results of a Systematic Review and Analysis

Setting priorities on the basis of factors such as health impact and economic value is the key first step to ensure that the most important services receive the most attention. Few prioritization efforts have been published that produce either rankings or information that can guide decision making. We propose a framework to help decision makers and clinicians balance short-term demands against long-term objectives. This framework provides guidance for decisions about scope, prioritization criteria, evidence review methods, evaluation of criteria fit, and presentation of results. The framework is the result of our experience setting priorities among clinical preventive services. It has not been tested in prioritizing community interventions and other health care services but should provide a useful starting point for designing priority-setting efforts in those areas.