Curious resilience of the $50,000-per-QALY threshold

For more than two decades, the ratio of $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained by using a given health care intervention has played an important if enigmatic role in health policy circles as a benchmark for the value of care.

The observation was made in an article published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine by researchers Peter Neumann and Joshua Cohen, of the Tufts Medical Center, and Milton Weinstein of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Researchers have summoned this cost-effectiveness ratio in order to champion or denounce particular investments in medical technologies and health programs. Critics, meanwhile, have argued that the ratio is misunderstood and misused, they said.