Category: Chairman's Corner

Chairman's Corner: Chairman Coelho Testifies in Oregon Against Use of QALYs

11/18/2022

This blog was adapted from testimony delivered by PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho to Oregon's Health Evidence Review Commission (HERC) on November 17, 2022.

Thank you for allowing me to testify again today. I want to start by saying I appreciate that the commission chose not to vote today on a policy to use the quality-adjusted life year.

Chairman's Corner: Aligning Health Technology Assessment with Efforts to Advance Health Equity

11/13/2022

As Chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC), I could not be more pleased to see the widespread emphasis among health stakeholders on advancing health equity. As stated by the Centers for Disease Control, racism is a public health crisis. It will take all facets of the health care system to address the effects of stigma and discrimination on health and access to health care.

PIPC Chairman Coelho Testifies to Oregon HERC that QALYs are Contrary to the ADA

10/6/2022

On October 6, PIPC Chair Tony Coelho testified in response to the Oregon Health Evidence Review Committee's proposed options for continuing its use of the discriminatory quality-adjusted-life-years metric.

Chairman's Corner: A Step Backward — No Voice for Stakeholders in Updated Reconciliation Provisions

7/14/2022

Image of PIPC Chair Tony Coelho

Congress is again debating health care payment reforms that impact the availability of innovative treatments, with the newest iteration of draft legislation not only failing to be responsive to calls from the disability community to unambiguously bar the use of discriminatory value metrics like the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) across federal programs, but also providing no opportunity for affected stakeholders to provide input.

Chairman's Corner: Don’t Let Payer Investments in QALYs Undermine California’s Health Equity Goals

6/21/2022

Image of PIPC Chair Tony Coelho

As a former California Congressman and founder of the Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy and Innovation at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, I am invested in advancing disability rights in California. I also believe it is imperative that health care, including prescription drugs, are affordable to all patients and persons with disabilities.

Chairman's Corner: Recent Polling Finds Strong Support for Congress to End Use of Discriminatory Metrics Across Federal Programs

11/23/2021

This op-ed originally appeared in Morning Consult on November 23, 2021

Ten years after the Partnership to Improve Patient Care released its first public opinion survey, our latest poll underscores how vitally important it is for lawmakers to maintain and strengthen safeguards for patients and people with disabilities in all health care policies.

Chairman's Corner: Washington Must Help Patients Choose, Not Dictate Their Care

9/15/2021

This op-ed originally appeared in The Hill on September 14, 2021

Image of PIPC Chair Tony Coelho

Over a decade ago, I founded the Partnership to Improve Patient Care with a basic principle: Patients are best served when they are informed and empowered to decide which care options are best for them; they are poorly served when policymakers in Washington dictate which options are best.

Chairman's Corner: PIPC's Commitment to Nondiscrimination

4/22/2021

Image of PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho

Today, the House reintroduced legislation - modeled on what was known as H.R. 3 when it was introduced in 2019 - that would rely on quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to value health care, which are well known to discriminate against people with disabling and chronic conditions, especially in communities of color that are not well represented in the research literature.

Chairman's Corner: CBO Confirms Use of Discriminatory Metrics in H.R. 3

2/10/2021

Image of PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho

The fight against disability discrimination in health care is not new. For 30+ years we have fought the use of metrics that discriminate in our healthcare system, like the Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY). In 2019, patients and people with disabilities, myself included, dared to question House legislation known as H.R. 3 which sought to lower the prices of drugs by referencing discriminatory reimbursement strategies from foreign governments, many of which rely on the QALY thereby restricting access to care for people with chronic conditions and disabilities.

Chairman's Corner: Tennessee Medicaid Waiver Shows Callous Disregard for Patients and People with Disabilities

1/19/2021

Image of P|PC Chairman Tony Coelho

It is hard to know where to begin in such a moment. In my lifetime, I have never seen anything like this riotous transition of power, with insurrection led by a power-hungry President and his delegates. While the world is watching insurrection, agencies under his control are pushing out rules and waivers that may not be easily undone.

PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho Congratulates President-elect Biden

11/12/2020

As Chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC), I want to express my sincere congratulations to President-elect Joe Biden. Patients and people with disabilities are eager and excited to work with the President-elect and his team on policies that will improve their health and quality of life.

Chairman's Corner: Proposed IPI Would Import Discriminatory Value Assessments

2/2/2020

Is the life of a person with a disability or chronic condition less valuable than the life of a person without one? There is renewed interest among lawmakers to tackle healthcare costs, specifically, the rising cost of prescription drugs. However, the Administration’s proposed International Pricing Index (IPI) model, an initiative proposed in 2018 that would arbitrarily base prices of American medications off the government set prices of medications in foreign countries, is deeply flawed. Yet, we may see some version of it reintroduced soon.

Chairman's Corner: New York’s Embrace of Discriminatory Value Assessments is a Call to Action!

4/4/2019

The final New York budget is complete. And now we know for sure that states feel empowered by this administration to discriminate in their Medicaid programs. I had hoped that we were past these tactics to discriminate when, in 1992, HHS denied a state Medicaid waiver using quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs) to determine its coverage because of its implications for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and when, in 2010, Congress banned use of QALYs in Medicare. But it looks like we are fighting this kind of discrimination state-by-state now.

Chairman's Corner: We Must Address Rising Health Care Costs With Patient-Centered Solutions

3/15/2019

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in Morning Consult on March 15, 2019.

Across the nation, there’s a collective agreement that something must be done by lawmakers and regulators to address the rising cost of health care. As new policies and regulations are designed to meet affordability standards, it is important that patient-centered solutions remain at the forefront. However, that is not what we’re seeing in recent state policies across the nation

Chairman's Corner: Will ICER’s Response to Attacks on the QALY Quiet the Critics?: A Reply from the Partnership to Improve Patient Care

2/8/2019

In response to a recent blog post entitled “Will ICER’s Response to Attacks on the QALY Quiet the Critics?” (December 18, 2018) we must unfortunately reply: Absolutely not. Regrettably, ICER’s response suggests that for patients, the only options are a) a metric that is widely acknowledged to discriminate against the elderly and people with disabilities, or b) a metric that ignores elements of value that are critically important to patients. Patients need another option, and PIPC is committed to supporting it.

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The PIPC Blog

Chairman's Corner: Chairman Coelho Testifies in Oregon Against Use of QALYs

Chairman's Corner: Aligning Health Technology Assessment with Efforts to Advance Health Equity

PIPC Chairman Coelho Testifies to Oregon HERC that QALYs are Contrary to the ADA

Chairman's Corner: A Step Backward — No Voice for Stakeholders in Updated Reconciliation Provisions

Chairman's Corner: Don’t Let Payer Investments in QALYs Undermine California’s Health Equity Goals

Chairman's Corner: Recent Polling Finds Strong Support for Congress to End Use of Discriminatory Metrics Across Federal Programs

Chairman's Corner: Washington Must Help Patients Choose, Not Dictate Their Care

Chairman's Corner: PIPC's Commitment to Nondiscrimination

Chairman's Corner: CBO Confirms Use of Discriminatory Metrics in H.R. 3

Chairman's Corner: Tennessee Medicaid Waiver Shows Callous Disregard for Patients and People with Disabilities

PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho Congratulates President-elect Biden

Chairman's Corner: Proposed IPI Would Import Discriminatory Value Assessments

Chairman's Corner: New York’s Embrace of Discriminatory Value Assessments is a Call to Action!

Chairman's Corner: We Must Address Rising Health Care Costs With Patient-Centered Solutions

Chairman's Corner: Will ICER’s Response to Attacks on the QALY Quiet the Critics?: A Reply from the Partnership to Improve Patient Care

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