Oct. 23, 2015
By Kenneth Thorpe in The Huffington Post
Thorpe is Chairman, Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease; Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy & Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
We’re experiencing a seismic shift in American healthcare, transitioning from a system that encourages care in high volume to one that assures we get better value for our dollars spent. This makes sense. After all, the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation on the planet, so we should be getting more bang – in the form of better health outcomes and population well-being – for the buck.
This is easier said than done, however. The trick to injecting greater value into the healthcare system lies in finding the right balance between competing perspectives. Those who pay for healthcare – be they private insurers or public payers like Medicare – find value in steps that reduce medical costs, particularly in the short term. For patients, new treatments and technologies that improve health, reduce the likelihood of disability and enable longer, high-quality lives hold great value. Sometimes, these objectives align. Often, though, it’s more complicated and the secret lies in finding the sweet spot that promotes both significant health gains and financial sustainability.
And we have a responsibility to raise questions about actions and decisions that may fail to strike that necessary balance. Decisions about the evidence to consider and the weight applied to conflicting evidence can lead to different conclusions, and understanding the perspective of the reviewer sheds light on the reasons behind these judgment calls.
There has been an increased spotlight of late on the Institute of Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), which has received a hefty infusion of grant money for its work evaluating the cost-effectiveness of medical tests, treatments and delivery system innovations. Ostensibly, ICER’s research and recommendations are intended to help guide decision-making on the value of medical innovations, which can affect coverage and patient access.
Read full article at The Huffington Post.
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