One way to lower costs for medical products is by procuring drugs and medical devices at competitive prices. Reference pricing—a process that compares the selling prices of a given product within a country/region or at the international level and calculates a benchmark for negotiating the final purchase price—is a powerful tool for reducing price disparities of medical devices across countries and regions and making public procurement of essential medical products more sustainable for growing health care needs.

The Reference Pricing Guide provides an overview of steps to determine reference prices for durable medical devices using examples of products related to respiratory care. It includes a methodology for using domestic (internal) or international (external) reference pricing while describing factors that influence the prices of products. The guide considers reference pricing of durable medical devices used across many levels of health systems, from primary health care, general wards, and emergency transport, to intensive care units and specialized hospitals, and does not include single-use devices such as syringes or medical devices unable to withstand repeated use.

This tool is part of the Oxygen Delivery Toolkit: Resources to plan and scale medical oxygen. The materials provided within the toolkit can be used together or separately, as needed. The complete toolkit is available at www.path.org/oxygen-delivery-toolkit.