Dr Patricia Danzon Highlights European Examples of Restraining Drug Prices
August 16th 2017A combination of different countries’ health systems can set an example for the United States to follow in efforts to restrain the ongoing increases in drug prices, explains Patricia Danzon, PhD, the Celia Moh Professor at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
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Dr Ilene Hollin Outlines Differing Definitions of Value
August 9th 2017Patients, payers, and providers all view value in different ways, and they all need to be taken into account in value frameworks, said Ilene Hollin, PhD, MPH, the National Pharmaceutical Council and University of Southern California Schaeffer Center’s Postdoctoral Health Policy Fellow.
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Dr Patricia Danzon: Cost Effective Doesn't Mean Affordable
August 3rd 2017There are differences between cost effectiveness and affordability that people don't always understand. A drug may be cost effective but still not fall within the budget, explained Patricia Danzon, PhD, the Celia Moh Professor at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
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Dr Michael Sherman on Performance-Based Risk-Sharing Agreements
July 28th 2017Michael Sherman, MD, chief medical officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, discusses the challenges of moving towards performance-based risk-sharing agreements and where they would work best for certain treatments.
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Dr David Cutler Assesses the Political Odds of Drug Pricing Reform
July 25th 2017Legislators from both parties may have difficulty finding a common solution to high drug prices, but President Donald Trump could be instrumental in bringing prices down if he acts on his pledges, according to David M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.
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Dr Steve Pearson on Using Health Technology Assessment to Guide Decision Making
July 23rd 2017Health technology assessment (HTA) is a tool that helps to objectively evaluate evidence, which levels the playing field for new therapies looking to demonstrate cost-effectiveness, according to Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. In doing so, stakeholders can better understand the balance between innovation and affordability.
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Dr Gail Wilensky: Increased Competition a Better Drug Pricing Solution Than Cost Controls
July 16th 2017Both political parties want to lower the price of drugs, but differ in how they think it should be done. Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE, explained her opinion that spurring more competition would be a more successful approach than directly implementing price controls.
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Dr Steve Pearson on Data Needed to Evaluate Clinical and Economic Effects of New Therapies
July 14th 2017Ideally, researchers determining the clinical and economic effects of a new treatment would have both short-term and long-term data, explained Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. If not all of this data is available, however, they may have to use surrogate outcomes or perform indirect comparisons.
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Dr David Cutler: Trump Administration's Attention Not on Value-Based Purchasing
July 9th 2017The Trump administration’s healthcare priorities have mainly focused on replacing the Affordable Care Act or reforming Medicaid, leading to concerns that value-based purchasing efforts will be left in the dust, said David M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.
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Dr Gail Wilensky on the Likelihood of Continuing Value-Based Reimbursement Demonstrations
July 6th 2017Value-based care strategies will continue to progress no matter who occupies the White House, according to Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE. HHS Secretary Tom Price has indicated his support for limited demonstrations, but Wilensky predicts he will continue to push against large-scale mandatory demonstrations.
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Dr Steve Pearson: Patient Perspectives Guide ICER Value Framework Development
July 4th 2017According to Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), patient perspectives are critical for determining meaningful outcomes and helping to guide the cost-effectiveness review process.
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Dr Scott Ramsey Addresses the Need for Differential Pricing Structures for Drugs
July 2nd 2017Differential pricing structures are necessary for products with surrogate endpoints and to account for revolutionizing treatments in order to have a more sustainable value equation, according to Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
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Dr Gail Wilensky Raises Questions About Medicaid's Matching Grant Structure
June 25th 2017As Republicans work to reform Medicaid, they must contend with questions about the appropriate financial support level and the grant structure of the program, according to Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE.
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Dr Steve Pearson Explains How ICER Price Benchmarks Align Cost With Patient Benefits
June 22nd 2017Value-based price benchmarks can help payers determine whether a drug’s price aligns with its ability to help patients, which can then facilitate the innovation and uptake of new therapies, said Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER).
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Dr David Cutler Discusses Opportunities for Bipartisan ACA Reform
June 20th 2017There are some areas in health policy where Democrats and Republicans can find common ground, like incentivizing greater value, but bipartisan talks won’t happen while there are still active efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said David M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.
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Dr Scott Ramsey on Challenges of Determining Cost Effectiveness of Novel Cancer Treatments
June 19th 2017Scott Ramsey, MD, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses determining cost effectiveness of novel treatments, such as immuno-oncology agents, and potential solutions to reducing financial toxicity in cancer care.
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Dr Steve Pearson's Outlook on the Ongoing Updates to ICER's Value Framework
June 18th 2017As the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) prepares to update its final value proposal framework, it has been aided by the constructive comments from different stakeholders, said ICER president Steve Pearson, MD, MSc. He predicts that coming years will see continued interest in how to utilize such frameworks.
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Not Enough Attention Paid to Low Healthcare Spending Growth
June 13th 2017The United States just went through a period of low spending growth, and if no one pays attention to it, the country might not be able to figure out what worked to cause this slow growth, said Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE.
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Dr David Cutler: Won't Be Easy for Senate Republicans to Create a Healthcare Bill
May 30th 2017Senate Republicans are faced with a tall task to create a healthcare bill that repeals the Affordable Care Act because they've made conflicting promises. According to David. M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University, Senate Republicans have set themselves up for a situation where they can't meet all of their promises.
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Dr Gail Wilensky Remains "Hopeful" for Bipartisan Legislation on Healthcare Reform
May 29th 2017The healthcare legislation from Senators Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) was probably the best chance at a bipartisan bill, but there are some Democrats who still seem interested in drafting bipartisan legislation, explained Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE.
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Dr James D. Chambers Talks Future Health Economics Trends He Is Watching
May 24th 2017James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, of Tufts Medical Center was named the 2017 recipient of the Bernie J. O'Brien New Investigator Award at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting. He highlights the trends he is most looking forward to seeing develop over the next year and the next 5 years.
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Gene Therapies Present Great Potential, but Also Ethical and Practicality Challenges
May 24th 2017Gene therapies have tremendous potential. They are a short treatment that could have lifelong effects. However, the very expensive therapies have a lot of unknowns and raise a number of ethical and practicality questions.
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Dr Patricia Danzon: Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds Create Incentive to Develop Better Drugs
May 24th 2017Cost-effectiveness thresholds can do more than just guide determinations on whether drugs have value, explained Patricia Danzon, PhD, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Using these thresholds as a requirement for reimbursement provides an incentive for research and development focused on producing new drugs that will be considered effective enough to pay for.
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The Realities and Challenges of Medicare Negotiating Drug Prices
May 24th 2017The notion of letting Medicare negotiate drug prices has been around for years, but has recently gained new traction under President Donald Trump. Panelists at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts, discussed the complexities of allowing Medicare to negotiate prices and whether or not it would produce meaningful savings.
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Dr Steve Pearson Outlines the Importance of Thresholds on Determining Value
May 23rd 2017Thresholds can be useful to focus the conversation around the value of treatments in healthcare even if stakeholders have different views on what thresholds should be, explained Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
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Influencing Untreated Individuals Through Their Social Networks
May 23rd 2017Is it possible to leverage social networks to influence response to treatment among an untreated population? During the second plenary at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts, Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, of Yale University, described his research into social network interventions.
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Dr David M. Cutler Highlights the Importance of Reauthorizing the CHIP Program
May 22nd 2017Every 5 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has to be reauthorized. This year the program has to be reauthorized by September, and that normally would have happened by now, except the issue has flown under the radar with the other big healthcare issues dominating Congress' attention, explained David. M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.
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