BACKGROUND: Despite adequate literature on the effectiveness of behaviour change strategies for physicians, there is little information on whether these strategies are cost-effective. OBJECTIVES: To review the current literature on the cost-effectiveness of behaviour change policies for healthcare professionals. METHODS: A search of the MEDLINE database and of reference lists was performed up to May 2010.  RESULTS:  Twelve economic evaluations, assessing sixteen interventions in total, were identified. These were performed in either Europe or Australia. All but one evaluation had a control group, which received either no intervention (5) or a standard, less labour intensive intervention (7) (One evaluation had two phases and therefore two control groups). The type of control group had no association with whether the strategy was deemed cost-effective or not. Seven of the policies were deemed cost-effective by the authors (remuneration, telemarketing, outreach, training sessions (3), distance learning), six were deemed not (outreach (4), training session, courier delivery of guidelines) and three reported increased benefits with increased costs but did not conclude whether this was cost-effective (outreach (2), training session). Three studies actually reported decreased costs with the test intervention over control, two of which were due to decreased hospital referrals. Of those behaviour change policies not deemed cost-effective, 50% had minimal or no increase in effect and the other 50% had a very significant increase in costs.  CONCLUSIONS: Not all strategies were found to be cost-effective, which highlights the necessity of this type of analysis before major behaviour change policies are implemented. Multiple studies found that there were increased benefits with increased costs. With no defined threshold as to what makes a behaviour change policy cost-effective, the discussion is open to debate as to whether these benefits are worth the increased costs.