​Washington, D.C. – Today, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care and 37 leading patient and disability organizations submitted a comment letter to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) on their 2020 Value Assessment Framework. Given the serious concerns that stakeholders have raised with ICER’s flawed methodology, the letter urges ICER to put patients and people with disabilities at the center of all assessments to ensure they: (1) are transparent, (2) align with innovative leaders in the field, and (3) do not rely on the use of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and other discriminatory metrics that treat patients as averages. 

Today, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) released a public opinion poll by Morning Consult regarding the use of cost-effectiveness assessments to determine value of coverage and treatment costs. The survey demonstrates that voters resoundingly reject the main tenets of cost-effectiveness analyses with 82 percent of American voters objecting to their use in determining health care coverage and reimbursement decisions. These types of measures, which are often used outside of the U.S. to limit patient access to medicines, have been frequently criticized as discriminatory by patients and persons with disabilities. Increasingly, policymakers and payers have proposed to use these same tools to limit coverage for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.  

The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) and over 40 organizations representing patients, people with disabilities and providers submitted a letter to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) in response to their request for input on their value assessment process.  In the letter, the organizations stated, “Simply put, if we aren’t paying for care that patients’ value, we aren’t really paying for value-based care.”

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report yesterday entitled, “Comparative Effectiveness Research: HHS Needs to Strengthen Dissemination and Data-Capacity-Building Efforts.” The Chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC), former Congressman Tony Coelho, provided the following response to the report’s findings and recommendations:
“PIPC is pleased that GAO has evaluated some of the key issues in HHS’ use of comparative effectiveness research (CER) funds, particularly related to dissemination of research findings. The report highlights some of the same issues that PIPC has identified with AHRQ's CER dissemination activities, and the critical need for the agency to establish a strategic plan, standards, and procedures to advance new, patient-centered approaches to CER dissemination.  

Today, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) submitted formal comments to Representatives Fred Upton (R-MI) and  Diana DeGette (D-CO) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  "[PCORI] applauds the efforts of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to forge a bipartisan approach to speeding development of effective new therapies and to involving patients in the process. PCORI has proven that involving patients leads to better research questions and better research post-approval. We agree that engaging patients will improve technology development research, and PCORI stands ready to help.”  PCORI offered in their comments to be helpful in guiding the collection and methodological work around gathering patient data, advocated to support CER studies after treatments have been approved by the FDA, and advocated to build upon the foundation of PCORnet and its work to modernize clinical trials.  

Tony Coelho: "Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced new goals intended to move the Medicare program further toward value-driven health care. In addition, Secretary Burwell unveiled a newly launched Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network to support those goals. The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) shares the Secretary’s goal of achieving a more efficient, high-quality and patient-centered health care system.