The role of cost-effectiveness analysis in health care decision-making.

Over the past 15 years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number and diversity of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA) of medical technologies and an exponential growth in the number of published CEA studies in health care professional journals. At the same time, both the methodologies applied and the subject matter of CEA have expanded. Contributing to this growth has been increased government and private sector concern over managing the cost of health care and limiting third-party payer coverage to those medical techniques and procedures that are clinically effective and resource efficient.