Dr Steven Pearson: Medicare Part B Demonstration Is a Good Learning Opportunity

The Medicare Part B demonstration has been controversial since its announcement, but Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, considers it a wise move on the part of CMS because it provides an opportunity to learn about different payment structures.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What is your take on the Medicare Part B demonstration that CMS has proposed?

We’ll be submitting comments during the public comment phase so short of that I would say that I do think that it’s an important opportunity to learn from different ways to structure payment, to try to get an approach that aligns reimbursement with value to patients. I think that everybody could understand that that’s an important goal.

I understand that there are also important risks and unintended consequences so I think CMS is being very wise to take public comment, to think about it hard, and then to forecast later exactly what they will do in the value-based pricing aspect of this. But I do think that the status quo just probably isn’t adequate. It’s not adequate for patients in the long term, it’s probably not adequate for the health system to try to figure out how to continue to reimburse and afford these medications and so I think that CMS was wise to do it, wise to do it as an experiment, as a demonstration from which we can all learn.