Health care in America is at a turning point with the cost of care rising with no corresponding increase in the quality of care. New technologies, including prescription drugs and medical devices, are a major driver of these cost increases, which have grown by an estimated 71% since 2000. It is unknown whether the marketplace incentives, programmatic and organizational changes contained in health care reform legislation will lead either to clinical decisions that are in the patients’ best interests or to public health enhancements. With the inclusion of funding for comparative effective research (CER) in recent federal stimulus legislation and inclusion in both House and Senate health care reform bills, many stakeholders think that CER can inform and promote significant changes in care and outcomes by having a direct effect on clinical decisions. However, there is a widespread lack of understanding about the impact of CER.    Numerous Western countries have instituted CER in one form or another to prevent perverse incentives from inadvertently harming patients and to improve health care efficiency and quality. Also, both the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Federal Coordinating Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research Priorities rankings give high priority to healthcare delivery, procedures and devices, not pharmaceuticals.

 

·          Will the results of CER in these non-pharmaceutical areas expand the scope of P&T committees to include other technologies, service areas and treatment modalities? 

·          How will CER impact value-based benefit design? 

·          How can this information be best provided to physicians for patient-level treatment decisions and to managed care decision-makers and employers for coverage policy decisions? 

·          What types of CER studies will prove useful to P&T committees and other decision makers? 

·          What investments and incentives will be necessary to improve our capacity to develop evidence? 

·          What types of studies should industry sponsor? How can they maximize credibility to payers? 

·          In light of the CER movement, what is the future of rebates?

 

These are just a few of the questions that the keynote presenters and reactor panelists will address. FMCP will assemble an expert faculty and group of panelists from the pharmaceutical industry and your customers in managed healthcare systems to join you in a lively discussion on these and similar issues that will impact technology assessment in the short and long term. Don’t miss this opportunity!

 

The symposium will be held on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California