A practical approach to planning health services: using PBMA

Abstract

Planning health services is a difficult and often complex task. There are many approaches to planning, including theuse of tools such as needs assessment, goals and targets, as well as economics-based tools such as cost of illness oreconomic evaluation. It is not always clear which planning tool is the most appropriate. In this paper we comparean economics approach to planning using program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) with other approaches.We provide an overview of the methods of PBMA, report on experience with its use, and draw conclusions about itslikely usefulness to health services planners.