As detailed in a recent letter from PIPC, CancerCare, and over 40 other advocacy organizations, there is widespread opposition to the use of third party value assessments, especially those relying on quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs) and similar metrics, as the basis for denying or restricting access to care in the State of New York. The letter makes clear that patients and people with disabilities oppose one-size-fits-all definitions of value being used to create arbitrary thresholds in state healthcare systems, especially when they rely on discriminatory methods, such as the quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY).

​The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) has 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.  

Click here to view a blog post on the poll by PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho. 

The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) has joined CancerCare and cadre of leading advocacy organizations in a letter demonstrating widespread opposition to the use of third party value assessments, especially those relying on quality-adjusted-life-years (QALYs) and similar metrics, as the basis for denying or restricting access to care in the State of New York. The letter signed by over 40 organizations made it clear that patients and people with disabilities oppose one-size-fits-all definitions of value being used to create arbitrary thresholds in state healthcare systems, especially when they rely on discriminatory methods, such as the quality-adjusted-life-year (QALY).

In a letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Chairman Lamar Alexander, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho outlined  several patient-centered policy approaches aimed at facilitating informed decision-making and reducing health care costs. Specifically, Chairman Coelho listed: (1) reauthorization of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI); (2) avoiding the use of QALYs or similar value metrics; and (3) empowering patients to make informed health care decisions as avenues to pursue when considering policies to lower health care costs. "Health care stakeholders – ranging from patients, providers, and innovators – understand that a value-based health care system that truly supports advancements in personalized and individualized medicine must be built on a foundation of patient-centeredness," wrote Chairman Coelho. Patient-centered, evidence-based health care can lower overall spending by ensuring patients are able to receive timely treatment that is right for them, avoiding downstream costs, and improving patient outcomes."