In This Week’s Issue:
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1. Forbes: A QALY Is A QALY Is A QALY, Or Is It? Click here to read the column. 
2. Op-ed: A little known group is making decisions about which Orange County lives are worth living? Click here to read the op-ed.
3. Morning Consult: Emancipating Data — Science in the Open Is Key to Understanding Value, click here to read the op-ed 
4. Health Affairs: Putting Patients’ Goals And Needs At The Center Of Care — How Can We Do Better? Click here to read the blog.
5. Chairman Coelho in San Jose Mercury News: Trump Medicare drug plan would hurt most vulnerable, click here to read the op-ed
6. PIPC Submits Comment to CMS on Proposed International Pricing Index, click here to read the letter.
7. PIPC: Don't Discriminate on Care, click here to view.
8. International News: What Happens in Countries Using QALYs and Cost-Based Thresholds to Determine Coverage? Click here to view. 
9. Upcoming ICER Studies: Angiodema, Asthma, Opioid Use Disorder, MS, Peanut Allergy, SMA, Depression, click here to provide patient input
10. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below.
11. Medical Journal Articles, see details below.
12. AHRQ Effective Program Updates, see details below. 

In This Week’s Issue:
 
1. Chairman Coelho in San Jose Mercury News: Trump Medicare drug plan would hurt most vulnerable, click here to read the op-ed.
2. Friends of PCORI Reauthorization Event, see details below. 
3. PIPC Submits Comment Letter to CMS on Proposed International Pricing Index, click here to read the letter. 
4. Chairman's Corner: ICER Misses the Mark Again, click here to read the blog.
5. Summary of PIPC's 9th Annual Forum: Building Patient-Centered Value Standards, click here to read more.  
6. PIPC: Don't Discriminate on Care, click here to view.
7. International News: What Happens in Countries Using QALYs and Cost-Based Thresholds to Determine Coverage? Click here to view. 
8. Patient EngagementHIT: Rural Hospital Travel Times Increase, Hamper Patient Care Access, click here to read the article. 
9. Upcoming ICER Studies: Angiodema, Asthma, Opioid Use Disorder, MS, Peanut Allergy, SMA, Depression, click here to provide patient input.
10. Upcoming Events and Webinars, see details below.
11. Medical Journal Articles, see details below.
12. AHRQ Effective Program Updates, see details below. 

This post originally appeared as an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News on January 2, 2019. 

The Trump administration proposed an “international pricing index” intended to reduce drug spending under Medicare Part B by replicating the rates negotiated in other countries. It seems like a commonsense solution: Why should America pay more than other countries?The truth, however, is more complicated: lower foreign prices emerge from one-size-fits-all health care systems that drive patients to use certain drugs while refusing others, irrespective of individual needs.