Latest Conference Articles

The healthcare legislation from Senators Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) was probably the best chance at a bipartisan bill, but there are some Democrats who still seem interested in drafting bipartisan legislation, explained Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE.

Amidst a turbulent political climate as Republicans endeavor to enact the American Health Care Act, the shift to value-based contracts will continue due to the other market forces in play, explained Clifford Goodman, PhD, moderator at the ACO Coalition spring live meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, and senior vice president and director at the Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research at the Lewin Group.

When MedPAC released several proposals to control Part B reimbursement costs, the ideas within them were not a surprise, explained Leah Ralph, director of health policy at the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). However, the ACCC has some concerns about how these proposals could impact cancer patients’ access to care.

Given the chance to suggest a healthcare policy change to lawmakers, Michael Griffin, president and CEO of Daughters of Charity Services, would recommend making Medicaid available to all Americans. Griffin said this would reduce cost while greatly expanding access.

As the amount of healthcare data and information exchange continues to grow, so does the threat of data breaches and cyberattacks, according to Lee Barrett, executive director of the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission.

As the capabilities and benefits of e-prescribing become more widely known, states will likely continue enacting requirements to drive the uptake of this new technology, explained Doug Hillblom, PharmD, president at Arena Healthcare, LLC.

James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, of Tufts Medical Center was named the 2017 recipient of the Bernie J. O'Brien New Investigator Award at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting. He highlights the trends he is most looking forward to seeing develop over the next year and the next 5 years.

Gene therapies have tremendous potential. They are a short treatment that could have lifelong effects. However, the very expensive therapies have a lot of unknowns and raise a number of ethical and practicality questions.

Cost-effectiveness thresholds can do more than just guide determinations on whether drugs have value, explained Patricia Danzon, PhD, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Using these thresholds as a requirement for reimbursement provides an incentive for research and development focused on producing new drugs that will be considered effective enough to pay for.

Measure developers have a number of challenges to consider when developing a new measure and getting it implemented, explained Matthew Pickering, PharmD, RPh, associate director of research and quality strategies at the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA).

Thresholds can be useful to focus the conversation around the value of treatments in healthcare even if stakeholders have different views on what thresholds should be, explained Steve Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Is it possible to leverage social networks to influence response to treatment among an untreated population? During the second plenary at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts, Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, of Yale University, described his research into social network interventions.

A tailored approach to value assessment will help drive innovation and impact patient outcomes and access to care, said Ilene Hollin, PhD, MPH, of the National Pharmaceutical Council.

Of the payers who have an outcomes-based contract in place, only 9% view them as being very successful, while 50% say they are somewhat successful. Panelists agreed that flexibility is necessary for these contracts to succeed.

Every 5 years, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has to be reauthorized. This year the program has to be reauthorized by September, and that normally would have happened by now, except the issue has flown under the radar with the other big healthcare issues dominating Congress' attention, explained David. M. Cutler, PhD, of Harvard University.

Stakeholders’ perspectives can vary, and their different preferences matter when it comes to value assessment, but only if the right questions are being asked.

While there is a lot of uncertainty about what the final Senate healthcare reform bill will look like, Gail Wilensky, PhD, of Project HOPE, expects the bill will ultimately be to the left of the House bill in order to get the moderates on board.

Healthcare is a complicated issue with few, if any, easy fixes. The important thing is that the country continues to move forward, according to panelists during the first plenary at the ISPOR 22nd Annual International Meeting, held May 20-24 in Boston, Massachusetts.

About 40% of new specialty drugs in 2017 are expected to be for orphan drug indications, which is keeping with the trend; however, an upcoming investigation into potential abuses of the Orphan Drug Act could have an unknown impact on development and prices, said Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant for emerging therapeutics at Express Scripts.

With the high cost of new drugs to cure hepatitis C, ensuring that real-world outcomes are consistent with those seen in clinical trials is important, explained Gail Bridges, PharmD, of Accredo Health. She explained that Accredo ensured patients adhered to hepatitis C drugs in order to get the best outcomes through a disease- and drug-specific education program.

Matthew Gubens, MD, MS, assistant clinical professor of thoracic oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, discussed the areas of lung immuno-oncology research where he anticipates significant advances will be made in coming years.

Findings from real-world studies will help clinicians and other health stakeholders better understand the use of Toujeo compared with Lantus, particularly regarding treatment dosage patterns, for patients with type 2 diabetes, according to Liz Zhou, MD, director of evidence-based medicine at Sanofi Medical Affairs.

According to Richard J. Willke, PhD, chief science officer of ISPOR, real-world data has some unique advantages over randomized clinical trial findings, especially for health plans looking to make coverage decisions.

Although it may be costly to negotiate and implement risk-based arrangements, these agreements are a valuable tool for testing outcomes in the real world among complex patients, explained Lou Garrison, PhD, professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

The REACH trial of an eCounseling program to reduce hypertension was effective because it encouraged patients to see themselves as an active member of the team, according to lead study author Rob Nolan, PhD, CPsych, director of Cardiac eHealth at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre and clinical psychologist and scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute.

When developing interventions to improve population health, particularly among minority groups, research must take a culturally sensitive approach that is targeted to the specific needs of that population, according to Moon S. Chen Jr, PhD, MPH, professor of hematology and oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and principal investigator of The National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities. He also emphasized the importance of clinicians’ role in population health.

As healthcare moves more toward a system of value-based care, ethical committees are becoming more important to ensuring an institution's ethical values are evident in the way it provides care to patients, explained Jacqueline Glover, PhD, professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Denver.

Findings from 2 Phase III trials of plecanatide were presented at Digestive Disease Week, held May 6-9 in Chicago, Illinois.