State Legislatures Explore How to Measure a Drug’s Value
What is a vaccine, a cure or a life-altering medication worth? As more state legislatures across the country explore this very question, their answers – and their methods – may not sync with their constituents’ values.
Rx Exclusion Lists Shut Patients Out
Health plans are quietly cutting more and more medications from their list of approved drugs, narrowing patients’ treatment options.
Does Patient Input Fall on Deaf Ears?
When it comes to incorporating patients into decisions about medication and value, the United States just isn’t making the grade.
AfPA-IfPA Health Policy Leadership Retreat
What’s the value of a trusting relationship with a good doctor? A life-altering medication? Choices among medical treatments?
Patient Access Withers Under ICER’s Influence
CVS Health recently announced that employers who use its pharmacy benefit management services can cut certain medications from their plan’s formulary of approved drugs. Which drugs? Those that exceed a cost-effectiveness threshold established by ICER, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.
How Physicians View the 340B Drug Pricing Program
The 340B Drug Pricing Program was designed to encourage health care facilities to provide care for uninsured or underinsured patients. The program works by providing facilities a significant discount on prescription drugs in exchange for their treatment of indigent patients. But whom does 340B really benefit? Has it fulfilled its original intent? And how do […]
ICER Report Offers Little for Women with Endometriosis
Only one-fourth of the 6 million women with endometriosis could be treated with a new GnRH antagonist and still meet the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review’s budget threshold, according to a report released by the organization. The new drug has shown promise in clinical trials to lessen the pain associated with endometriosis, which can cause painful menstrual periods and even infertility.
“The ICER Myth” Questions One-Size-Fits-All Approach to Drug Valuation
What is innovative medicine worth to patients? It depends on which patient you ask. The disease a patient suffers from, its symptoms and their impact on a patient’s day-to-day life make the question a highly personal one. So does the extent to which a medicine addresses symptoms or even cures a disease.
Comments on Draft Scoping Document for CGRP Inhibitors for Migraine Prevention
The Institute for Patient Access raised several concerns during ICER’s open input period. Based on the methodology described in the draft scoping document, however, it does not appear that ICER’s cost-effectiveness evaluation will adequately address these issues.
Input on ICER’s Upcoming Analysis of Erenumab as a Treatment for Migraine
IfPA has concerns that ICER is undertaking the cost effectiveness evaluation of Erenumab before sufficient data exists. However, should the evaluation proceed nonetheless, it is imperative that the evaluation incorporate effective estimates for all of the potential benefits associated with more effective treatment of migraine, which include: reduced health care costs associated with treating migraine […]
