In November 2021, Morning Consult ran a poll on behalf of Partnership to Improve Patient Care, focusing on the use of cost- effective assessments to determine the value of coverage and treatment costs. The survey found that Americans want patients and their doctors in charge of health care decision making and are opposed to the use of cost assessments such as Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY).
PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho published an opinion piece in Morning Consult about the poll, stating, "Ten years after the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) released its first public opinion survey, our latest poll released today 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 Coelho was heartened to see the National Council on Disability — an independent federal agency that advises Congress and the administration on disability policy — recently come out with targeted recommendations to strengthen BBBA by including meaningful protections against government use of discriminatory cost-effectiveness thresholds based on the quality-adjusted life year (QALY). He emphasized that this recommendation represents an important step in protecting patients and patients with disabilities.
Voters Agree: The Use of Discriminatory QALY assessments is Concerning.
Chairman Coelho further stated, "Our new survey results are important as Congress continues its work on policies impacting access to health care, particularly as part of the Build Back Better Act. We hope Congress will heed the recommendations from the National Council on Disability to expand existing protections for patients and people with disabilities so that many Americans are protected from health care discrimination. Despite the long history in the United States acknowledging that metrics like QALYs discriminate in violation of disability and civil rights laws, their use is rising —not falling.” He concluded that it is time to finally end the ambiguity and prohibit QALYs altogether.
Click here to read Chair Coelho's op-ed.
Click here to read Chair Coelho's op-ed.
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