PECUNIA Reference Unit Cost (RUC) templates
The PECUNIA RUC Templates help standardize how costs of health and social services are calculated across different countries and sectors in Europe. They make it easier to compare costs and use reliable data in health economic studies.
At a glance
Use when
Conducting multinational or multisectoral economic evaluations; developing reference unit costs for HTA; harmonizing cost data across diverse healthcare and social systems.
Avoid when
Working in settings with no access to cost or resource use data; when only bottom-up micro-costing is feasible; when strict national costing standards conflict with the template framework.
Inputs
Secondary or primary data on resource use, service volumes, and cost inputs; data sources may span healthcare, social care, and non-medical sectors.
Outputs
Harmonized reference unit costs (RUCs) for health and social services, enabling cross-country and cross-sector comparisons in economic evaluations.
How it works
The PECUNIA Reference Unit Cost (RUC) Templates are three self-completion tools designed for top-down micro-costing or top-down gross-costing approaches, using either primary or secondary data. Developed through a six-step process including conceptual framework development, harmonization strategy, expert feedback, piloting, validation, and cross-country demonstration, they support harmonized, multi-sectoral, and multi-country service costing. Complementary templates for data collection and unit cost aggregation/weighting are provided. Validated within a Health Technology Assessment framework, they enhance comparability, transparency, and transferability of unit cost data across Europe.
- Project
- PECUNIA
- Funding
- Horizon 2020
- Project status
- Completed 2021
- HTA domains
- Costs & Economic Evaluation
- Categories
- Costing & Resource Use
- Technology
- Non-specific
- Assumptions
- Cost data can be standardized across heterogeneous systems; sufficient data availability at national or regional level; willingness of stakeholders to adopt a common framework.
- Strengths
- Enables cross-country comparability; supports societal perspective in costing; flexible for use with various data sources; promotes transparency and transferability; validated in multiple European countries.
- Limitations
- Dependent on data availability and quality across countries; may require adaptation to local contexts; limited applicability in settings with scarce cost data.
- Geographic & clinical scope
- Austria; Germany; Hungary; the Netherlands; United Kingdom; Spain
- Also known as
- PECUNIA RUC Templates, Reference Unit Cost Templates
Questions this answers
- › How can we calculate service costs consistently across different countries?
- › What tools help standardize unit cost data for health and social care?
- › How can economic evaluations use comparable cost data from multiple sectors?
- › Can these templates work with existing data sources?
- › How do the templates handle differences between healthcare systems?
- › What support is available for users applying the templates?
Related methods
Similar by meaning
Beta record. Generated from the primary source via AI extraction and independent audit, pending final human review.