Costing tool

The Dutch costing manual is the standard work for costing research in health care. The costing manual provides methodological guidance for performing costing studies. An important aspect of the costing manual is that it provides reference prices. Reference prices are available for a broad range of health care services. The use of reference prices is recommended by the Dutch health economic guidelines.

Download the costing tool 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.