Cost effectiveness is usually defined as the average cost required to achieve a specified result. The success rate of a procedure has to be taken into account in order to determine its cost effectiveness. Cost effectiveness is a useful way to compare different treatment methods to achieve the same outcome (such as pregnancy). Cost effectiveness can be calculated either as the cost of a procedure divided by its success rate or as the total cost of the number of procedures to achieve a single success.

For example, IVF has an overall success rate of 30% per treatment at an average cost of $12,000 per treatment. Its cost effectiveness is $12,000/.3 or $40,000 per pregnancy achieved. Another way to look at it is that it takes 3.3 IVF cycles, on average, to achieve a pregnancy, or $12,000 x 3.3 treatment cycles = $40,000 spent by several couples for one couple to achieve a pregnancy.

The tubal reversal procedure I perform has an overall success rate of 70% at an average cost of $6000 per treatment. Its cost effectiveness is 6000/.7 or $8570 for a couple to achieve a pregnancy. Other doctors don’t have systems in place for long term follow-up of all of their patients such as we do at Chapel Hill Tubal Reversal Center. Without this, they can’t know their actual success rates, so the cost effectiveness of their procedures remains unknown.