Costing tool

The costing manual for economic evaluations is a pivotal document for economic evaluations in the Netherlands. The costing manual is part of the Dutch health economic guidelines and describes methodology for costing studies and provide reference prices for a plethora of healthcare providers. Use of the costing manual, and its reference prices, is mandatory for economic evaluations in the Netherlands. The latest update of the costing manual has been published in 2024, and is available in Dutch and English.

Reference prices in the costing manual are updated to the year 2022. For studies in later years, cost prices need to be updated. As described in the costing manual, this is done by inflation correction, using consumer price index from Statistics Netherlands. Manual indexation is time consuming and prone to errors. As a solution, a tool was developed which automatically updates reference prices from the costing manual. In addition, updated estimates for the friction period can be retrieved. The tool also can also calculate the annuity factor and yearly depreciation and interest cost of medical equipment. Information on the R package is also provided so you can do the calculations yourself.

The tool is available here

Reference prices were calculated using various sources. Some reference prices are based on bottom-up microcosting studies, while other reference prices are based on top-down studies using information from national databases on volumes and expenditures. The methods used to derive reference prices are described in the Dutch costing manual and in the accompanying scientific article.

The excel tool provides the reference prices for various health care services from the latest edition of the costing manual. The tool provides reference prices for various years, which can be selected by the user. The excel tool is currently only available in the Dutch language.

Reference for the costing manual:

Hakkaart-van Roijen L, Van der Linden N, Bouwmans CAM, Kanters T, Tan SS. Costing manual: Methodology of costing research and reference prices for economic evaluations in healthcare [in Dutch: Kostenhandleiding: Methodologie van kostenonderzoek en referentieprijzen voor economische evaluaties in de gezondheidszorg]. 2015.

Reference for the scientific article:

Kanters TA, Bouwmans CAM, Van der Linden N, Tan SS, Hakkaart-van Roijen L. Update of the Dutch manual for costing studies in health care. Plos One.