“I Aim at the Stars,” was a 1960 B-movie biopic about Wernher von Braun. Many felt that it should have been subtitled, “But sometimes I hit London.”
In keeping with that metaphor, comes news that Germany’s IQWiG (the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare) is preparing to test a new cost-benefit methodology towards the end of this month. The test will last for about four months.
To do this it has had to draft a cost-benefit methodology. A first version was put out for public consultation earlier this year and drew many comments (not all laudatory) from stakeholders. Some were critical of the proposed "efficiency frontier analysis" the institute plans to use as the basis of cost-benefit assessments. IQWiG claims that efficiency frontier analysis can be "used in a very flexible manner to compare the cost-benefit relation of any number of therapy alternatives.”
“Flexible” is in the eyes of the beholder.
IQWiG´s new methodology will help determine an “appropriate ceiling” price for drugs that are reimbursed by the statutory health insurers but cannot be included in a reference price group. IQWiG’s assessment will also include a budget impact analysis that can be used in estimating how a decision may affect expenditure in the health care system as a whole.
The cross-channel (and potential cross-Atlantic) implications are especially timely coming on the heels of the Baucus/Conrad bill and while experts are predicting a meltdown of Britain’s NHS.
The answer? According to Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), draconian rationing. As he said earlier this week, "Rationing is a necessary evil. We have to do it. There will be losers and winners." That's "universal" health care in its true guise of cost-based "government" health care.
As Tom Lehrer sang, “Once the rocket goes up who cares where it comes down. That’s not my department says Wernher von Braun.”
In keeping with that metaphor, comes news that Germany’s IQWiG (the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Healthcare) is preparing to test a new cost-benefit methodology towards the end of this month. The test will last for about four months.
To do this it has had to draft a cost-benefit methodology. A first version was put out for public consultation earlier this year and drew many comments (not all laudatory) from stakeholders. Some were critical of the proposed "efficiency frontier analysis" the institute plans to use as the basis of cost-benefit assessments. IQWiG claims that efficiency frontier analysis can be "used in a very flexible manner to compare the cost-benefit relation of any number of therapy alternatives.”
“Flexible” is in the eyes of the beholder.
IQWiG´s new methodology will help determine an “appropriate ceiling” price for drugs that are reimbursed by the statutory health insurers but cannot be included in a reference price group. IQWiG’s assessment will also include a budget impact analysis that can be used in estimating how a decision may affect expenditure in the health care system as a whole.
The cross-channel (and potential cross-Atlantic) implications are especially timely coming on the heels of the Baucus/Conrad bill and while experts are predicting a meltdown of Britain’s NHS.
The answer? According to Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), draconian rationing. As he said earlier this week, "Rationing is a necessary evil. We have to do it. There will be losers and winners." That's "universal" health care in its true guise of cost-based "government" health care.
As Tom Lehrer sang, “Once the rocket goes up who cares where it comes down. That’s not my department says Wernher von Braun.”
