An op-ed I was honored to co-author with BIONJ's CEO, Debbie Hart.
Article was originally published in the New Jersey Spotlight
You can learn more about BIONJ here:
OP-ED: NOW THAT’S A PATIENT-CENTERED VALUE FRAMEWORK
DEBBIE HART AND ROBERT GOLDBERG | OCTOBER 27, 2017
Insurance companies often use value frameworks to steer all patients to the least-expensive products, erecting barriers to obtaining recommended treatments
There’s been a lot of discussion about using “value frameworks” to reduce the cost of drugs and increase patient access. Value frameworks are being proposed as tools to determine which medicines will be covered, reimbursed, and made available to patients. Value-assessment frameworks attempt to assess therapeutic options based on clinical benefits, health outcomes, value to the patient, and effectiveness, compared with other potential treatment options … all in the context of cost. Unfortunately, such evaluations assume that on average, everyone will respond to all drugs in the same way. In fact, the same treatment can have different benefits to different patients, depending on their genetics, combination of diseases, severity of illness, age, gender, and race.
Moreover, value frameworks are used by insurance companies to steer all patients to the least-expensive products by imposing higher cost-sharing and more barriers to obtaining recommended treatments, even if the other drugs are not as effective or oftentimes, don't work. Coverage is already constrained through higher out-of-pocket spending, and step therapy (a patient must fail first on medicines specified by the insurance company before being eligible to receive the drug actually prescribed by the physician), and prior authorization.
In addition, value frameworks, by limiting choice further, make it even more difficult to match people to the treatments that work best. And by measuring value simply in terms of reducing other healthcare spending, such frameworks are biased against the most vulnerable patients with few or no treatment options. Not every medicine will save money, but most medicines for people with rare, life-threatening, or disabling conditions improve the quality of life. In many instances, the first new treatment allows people to enjoy the opportunity for the next round of therapy that in turn, may increase well-being and save lives.
As Mark Fendrick, the godfather of value-based health insurance has stated, “the sickest patients are often those who face the highest financial burdens and the greatest obstacles to access.” Where is the value there?
That is not to say that the cost and benefits of new products should escape scrutiny. BioNJ welcomes the opportunity to discuss the true value of medical innovation and demonstrate the importance of enabling meaningful access to innovative medicines that benefit the entire healthcare system, the economy, and society as a whole.
Long-term impact
But value frameworks ignore the long-term impact of new medicines in setting prices and rationing access. The formulations being used do not take into consideration that increasing the number of healthy people working, going to school, investing, and contributing to society will actually save healthcare costs and ensure a robust insurance system.
We need healthcare coverage that concentrates on improving quality of life and averting loss of productivity and capability due to disease. Drug prices should reflect the differentiated worth of specific features or benefits that a new treatment provides and the ability to invest in future innovative medicines. This approach will encourage increased access and lower costs based on a new medicine's value and quality.
For example, Celgene CEO Mark Alles recently wrote that his company is “proactively working with major commercial U.S. healthcare payers on arrangements designed to give eligible patients access to our most recently approved medicine — a precision therapy with an accompanying diagnostic test — without deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance. By partnering with payers to offset and even eliminate patient cost sharing as an obstacle to treatment, our hope is to prevent some of the financial burden that leads to many of the problems currently impacting patient care.”
For BioNJ, ensuring that “patients have the right treatment at the right time” for the greatest benefit is not just a slogan: It’s our vision. We owe it to patients to provide access to innovative medicines that are transforming the trajectory of many debilitating diseases and conditions.
Consider that over the past 30 years U.S. cancer survivors have more than doubled to 14.5 million. HIV/AIDS — once a death sentence — is now a chronic manageable condition. Deaths from heart disease have declined by 50 percent. More recently, hepatitis C, once an incurable disease, can now be cured with one pill a day taken over four months.
In the absence of those medicines, healthcare would be more expensive, fewer people would be alive, and more people would live in pain.
That’s why with nearly 70 percent of medicines in the pipeline, potentially first-in-class therapies, the promise for increased life expectancy, improved life quality, and reduced healthcare costs is boundless. Because Patients Can’t Wait, BioNJ looks forward to working with insurers, consumers, employers, elected officials, physicians, and biopharma companies to speed the right medicines to the people who need — and will benefit from — them the most. Now that’s a patient-centered value framework!
Debbie Hart is president and CEO of BioNJ. Robert Goldberg, Ph.D., is vice president & co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
Article was originally published in the New Jersey Spotlight
You can learn more about BIONJ here:
OP-ED: NOW THAT’S A PATIENT-CENTERED VALUE FRAMEWORK
DEBBIE HART AND ROBERT GOLDBERG | OCTOBER 27, 2017
Insurance companies often use value frameworks to steer all patients to the least-expensive products, erecting barriers to obtaining recommended treatments
There’s been a lot of discussion about using “value frameworks” to reduce the cost of drugs and increase patient access. Value frameworks are being proposed as tools to determine which medicines will be covered, reimbursed, and made available to patients. Value-assessment frameworks attempt to assess therapeutic options based on clinical benefits, health outcomes, value to the patient, and effectiveness, compared with other potential treatment options … all in the context of cost. Unfortunately, such evaluations assume that on average, everyone will respond to all drugs in the same way. In fact, the same treatment can have different benefits to different patients, depending on their genetics, combination of diseases, severity of illness, age, gender, and race.
Moreover, value frameworks are used by insurance companies to steer all patients to the least-expensive products by imposing higher cost-sharing and more barriers to obtaining recommended treatments, even if the other drugs are not as effective or oftentimes, don't work. Coverage is already constrained through higher out-of-pocket spending, and step therapy (a patient must fail first on medicines specified by the insurance company before being eligible to receive the drug actually prescribed by the physician), and prior authorization.
In addition, value frameworks, by limiting choice further, make it even more difficult to match people to the treatments that work best. And by measuring value simply in terms of reducing other healthcare spending, such frameworks are biased against the most vulnerable patients with few or no treatment options. Not every medicine will save money, but most medicines for people with rare, life-threatening, or disabling conditions improve the quality of life. In many instances, the first new treatment allows people to enjoy the opportunity for the next round of therapy that in turn, may increase well-being and save lives.
As Mark Fendrick, the godfather of value-based health insurance has stated, “the sickest patients are often those who face the highest financial burdens and the greatest obstacles to access.” Where is the value there?
That is not to say that the cost and benefits of new products should escape scrutiny. BioNJ welcomes the opportunity to discuss the true value of medical innovation and demonstrate the importance of enabling meaningful access to innovative medicines that benefit the entire healthcare system, the economy, and society as a whole.
Long-term impact
But value frameworks ignore the long-term impact of new medicines in setting prices and rationing access. The formulations being used do not take into consideration that increasing the number of healthy people working, going to school, investing, and contributing to society will actually save healthcare costs and ensure a robust insurance system.
We need healthcare coverage that concentrates on improving quality of life and averting loss of productivity and capability due to disease. Drug prices should reflect the differentiated worth of specific features or benefits that a new treatment provides and the ability to invest in future innovative medicines. This approach will encourage increased access and lower costs based on a new medicine's value and quality.
For example, Celgene CEO Mark Alles recently wrote that his company is “proactively working with major commercial U.S. healthcare payers on arrangements designed to give eligible patients access to our most recently approved medicine — a precision therapy with an accompanying diagnostic test — without deductibles, co-pays, and co-insurance. By partnering with payers to offset and even eliminate patient cost sharing as an obstacle to treatment, our hope is to prevent some of the financial burden that leads to many of the problems currently impacting patient care.”
For BioNJ, ensuring that “patients have the right treatment at the right time” for the greatest benefit is not just a slogan: It’s our vision. We owe it to patients to provide access to innovative medicines that are transforming the trajectory of many debilitating diseases and conditions.
Consider that over the past 30 years U.S. cancer survivors have more than doubled to 14.5 million. HIV/AIDS — once a death sentence — is now a chronic manageable condition. Deaths from heart disease have declined by 50 percent. More recently, hepatitis C, once an incurable disease, can now be cured with one pill a day taken over four months.
In the absence of those medicines, healthcare would be more expensive, fewer people would be alive, and more people would live in pain.
That’s why with nearly 70 percent of medicines in the pipeline, potentially first-in-class therapies, the promise for increased life expectancy, improved life quality, and reduced healthcare costs is boundless. Because Patients Can’t Wait, BioNJ looks forward to working with insurers, consumers, employers, elected officials, physicians, and biopharma companies to speed the right medicines to the people who need — and will benefit from — them the most. Now that’s a patient-centered value framework!
Debbie Hart is president and CEO of BioNJ. Robert Goldberg, Ph.D., is vice president & co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
