Table 3.

Summary of cost-effectiveness thresholds

Cost-effectiveness Measure	Threshold Single Point Estimate	Threshold Range	Study or Studies	Supporting Evidence for Threshold
Generic preference-based outcome
Cost per QALY	£20,000 to £30,000 per QALY	N/A	Marsden 201922	UK NICE willingness-to-pay threshold44
	£30,000 per QALY	N/A	Kenworthy 201720	UK NICE willingness-to-pay threshold44
	$50,000 per QALY	N/A	Carter 201719	no citation provided
	$100,000 per QALY	N/A	Premkumar 201943 Barocas 201936	Neumann 201451 Neumann 201652
	$100 000 to $200 000 per QALY	N/A	Murphy 201945 Murphy 201723	Neumann 201451
	averting one QALY for < 3x per-capita gross domestic product should be considered “cost-effective”	$0 to $6555 per QALY	Morozova 201937	Neumann 201451
	none listed	N/A	Bansback 201838 Krebs 201831	N/A
Cost per DALY	averting one DALY for < 3x and <1x the per-capita gross domestic product should be considered “cost-effective” and “highly cost-effective”, respectively	N/A	Idrisov 201727	World Health Organization’s Choosing Interventions that are Cost–Effective project (WHO-CHOICE)53
Non-preference based outcome
Treatment retention
Cost per patient retained at treatment at 1 year	$14,000 per patient retained at treatment at 1 year	N/A	King 201639	previous studies estimated $14,000 as the excess annual direct costs to third-party payers for patients diagnosed with OUD40–42
Cost per enrollment in formal addiction treatment at 30 days (%)	N/A	$0 to $30 per enrollment in formal addiction treatment at 30 days	Busch 201734	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Clinical outcome
Cost per death avoided within 6 months of first prison release	$25,000 per death avoided within 6 months of first prison release	N/A	Gisev 201530	half of the frequently used ceiling of $50 000 per additional life-year54
Cost per change in days of self-reported illicit opioid use in the past 7 days (days)	N/A*	$0 to $500 per change in days of self-reported illicit opioid use in the past 7 days (days)	Busch 201734	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Cost per abstinent year	N/A	$0 to $200,000 per abstinent year	Murphy 201723	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Cost per one additional day abstinent in the past 30 days	N/A*	$0 to $600 per additional day abstinent in the past 30 days	Dunlap 201832	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Cost per one percentage point increase in patients not opioid dependent	N/A*	$0 to $5000 per one percentage point increase in patients not opioid dependent	Dunlap 201832	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Cost per one percentage point increase in patients with a negative urine test for opioids	N/A*	$0 to $5000 per one percentage point increase in patients with a negative urine test for opioids	Dunlap 201832	assumed by range provided in CEAC
Cost per self-reported drug-free days	None listed	None listed	Vuong 201628	N/A
Cost per heroin-free day at 12 weeks	None listed	None listed	Dunlop 201735	N/A

^*authors state threshold should be set by decision maker N/A = not applicable; QALY = quality-adjusted life-year; CEAC = cost-effectiveness acceptability curve; DALY = disability-adjusted life-year; OUD = opioid use disorder