microcosting
Microcosting is a detailed costing approach used in health economics and related fields to estimate the true cost of a health care intervention by identifying and measuring each unit of resource consumed. Rather than applying aggregated average costs to broad categories, microcosting assembles resource use at the most granular level and assigns unit prices to each item, to produce a total cost that reflects actual practice in a given setting. The method is often contrasted with gross costing, which relies on averages or national tariffs.
Methodology and data sources include primary data collection and careful costing of resources. Data sources can
Applications include economic evaluations such as cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses, particularly for new or complex interventions
Advantages and limitations: microcosting offers high accuracy for specific settings and interventions and helps identify cost
Relation to other methods: it is often used alongside macro costing or activity-based costing, with hybrid approaches