An examination of end-of-life health care costs in Nova Scotia

End-of-life costs to the health care system can reach as high as 30-40% of total health care expenditures. Many needs-based allocation models do not consider either age-specific mortality rates nor the geographic variations in mortality. This project is aimed at developing a method of linking administration data to calculate end-of-life costs in Nova Scotia. It is important to establish these costs so that adequate models of resource allocation can be established at both the provincial and federal level to ensure equitable distribution of funding allocations.