Dr Mark Fendrick Explains Bipartisan Appeal of Value-Based Insurance Design

The new Medicare Advantage value-based insurance design (VBID) demonstration, which is supported by both the Obama administration and the Republican House of Representatives, has sparked interest from additional states that want to be involved in this access-increasing program, said A. Mark Fendrick, MD, director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan.

Transcript (slightly modified)

As the launch of the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design Model approaches, what do you expect to see in the first year of the initiative?

So the Medicare Advantage Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) demonstration launches in January 1 of 2017. Health plans in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Indiana for the first time have the option to lower cost sharing for specific services, for specific providers, for specific populations in specified chronic conditions. So we’re very excited for the first time to have diabetic patients to have enhanced access to things like eye exams, or patients with major depression disorder to have enhanced access to behavioral therapy. And for patients with post-stroke and heart disease to have access to those specialists and those drugs that will be able to manage their conditions.

We are also extraordinarily pleased to see that CMMI [Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation], based on the response to the first application process for the demo, expanded the demonstration to 3 additional states, Mississippi, Michigan, and Texas; and also added 2 new conditions, rheumatoid arthritis and dementia, to those conditions that were already included the first time around. So we’ve also heard from additional states not included in the demonstration that they want to be involved, and we hope to see an additional round of applications for new states.

In addition to the support of value-based insurance design from the Obama administration, VBID is one of those very, very, very rare healthcare reform ideas with bipartisan political support. One great example of the bipartisan support is the inclusion of value-based insurance design in the Medicare program, in the Better Way Forward, which is the Republican House healthcare reform document which has been led by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. It’s extraordinarily unusual, as you know, in these contentious times in healthcare policy to see an idea with support both from a Democratic executive administration as well as the House of Representatives majority party, that being the Republicans.