OBJECTIVES: The current healthcare system in Taiwan, National Health Insurance (NHI), is a single-payer compulsory social insurance plan with the global budgeting system. The national health insurance administration (NHIA) makes decisions on listing new health technologies based on clinical benefits, budget impacts, cost-effectiveness ( e.g. Incremental Cost Effectiveness Ratios (ICER)), orphan drugs, stakeholder perspectives etc. However, ICER thresholds are still not available in Taiwan at present. This study aims to identify potential approaches to evaluate ICER thresholds in Taiwan and further facilitate the application of ICER thresholds to help better healthcare resource allocation. METHODS: A focused literature review was carried out using the following search terms: 1. (willingness to pay OR contingent valuation OR discrete choice experiment) AND (quality adjusted life year or QALY); 2. Willingness to pay for (per) quality adjusted life year. RESULTS: A total of 2 systematic review articles and 20 evidence-based research articles published in 2013-2015 were included in this study. Methods of estimating ICER threshold were identified and classified as supply and demand aspects. From the supply side, ICER thresholds could be interpreted as the most optimal price per QALY within limited resources and budget. Therefore, ICER thresholds could be estimated by using opportunity cost strategies such as rule-based approaches, the league table approach or the revealed preference method. On the other hand, from the demand side, ICER thresholds could be seen as the societal willingness-to-pay (WTP). On the basis of present healthcare system in Taiwan, using the league table approach to estimate ICER thresholds would be recommended. However, further modifications of the league table approach are required to fit into NHI's global budgeting system. CONCLUSIONS: With limited healthcare resources and NHI’s global budgeting system, the league table approach would be suitable to estimate ICER thresholds in Taiwan. Furthermore, the methods of estimating ICER thresholds based on the global budgeting system are urgently needed.