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Newborn screening with tandem mass spectrometry: examining its cost-effectiveness in the Wisconsin Newborn Screening
Ralph P Insinga1, Ronald H Laessig, Gary L Hoffman
1Department of Population Health Sciences and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 53726-2397, USA.
Objective:
To examine the cost-effectiveness of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in a neonatal screening panel for 14 fatty acid oxidation and organic acidemia disorders in the Wisconsin Newborn Screening Program.
Study Design:
An incremental cost-effectiveness analysis with a hypothetical cohort of 100,000 infants was performed. A threshold of $50,000/QALY (quality-adjusted life-year) was used to determine whether screening for medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MCAD) alone is cost-effective or whether additional disorders would need to be incorporated into the analysis to arrive at a conclusion regarding the overall cost-effectiveness of MS/MS.
Results:
Under conservative assumptions, screening for MCAD alone yields an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $41,862/QALY. With the use of more realistic assumptions, screening becomes more cost-effective ($6008/QALY) and remains cost-effective so long as the incremental cost of screening remains under $13.05 per test. Adding the incremental costs of detecting the 13 other disorders on the screening panel still yields a result well within accepted norms for cost-effectiveness ($15,252/QALY).
Conclusions:
In Wisconsin, MS/MS screening for MCAD alone appears to be cost-effective. Future analyses should examine the cost-effectiveness of alternative follow-up and treatment regimens for MCAD and other panel disorders.
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