​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced the prices for the first 10 drugs targeted by the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. The Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) shares the goal of advancing affordability of health care for all patients and people with disabilities. It is critical that individuals can both afford and access the treatments prescribed by their physicians. 

​For over a decade, the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) has championed centering health care on patients and people with disabilities. In this literature review, we offer the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recommendations to create a systematic engagement process that goes beyond written comment periods and ad hoc listening sessions. 

​The Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act would advance the recommendation of the National Council on Disability calling for the bar on use of the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) and similar metrics that discriminate to be extended to all federal programs, including Medicaid. 

​Amidst the debate around value driven health care, it is important to understand what organizations can support such a system. Two prominent organizations, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), are positioned to help decision makers compare available treatment options. However, their approaches differ significantly. 

As healthcare costs in the United States have continued to grow, there has been an increasing desire to move towards “value-based” care in which patients and payers would be paying for the “value” of the treatment patients receive. This idea has been gaining particular momentum as policymakers look for strategies to curtail spending on pharmaceuticals. While there is merit in paying for services and treatments that work and eliminating wasteful spending, it is important to step back and consider to whom “value” is being provided. As the ultimate beneficiary, we would advocate that the measure of “value” in a healthcare setting should focus on value to the patient, but currently, we are concerned that the trend is to look towards “value” to the payer by prioritizing reduced cost over care outcomes for patients in the form of cost-effectiveness analyses.