In just one year, ICER has reviewed new treatments for high cholesterol, heart failure, asthma, diabetes, liver disease and a type of blood cancer. Although most of these treatments are promising, ICER has found that newer and more expensive doesn’t always mean better. Even when new drugs perform better than what’s already available, they still may not be effective enough to justify the high price tags.

We can’t just accept sky-high drug prices on good faith. Like my grandfather, we need to be consumers who ask questions and demand value.

Framework is listed below, email your suggestion before Sept 11 to motherhealth@gmail.com and publiccomments@icer-review.org :

Comments and suggested improvements are welcome on any part of the framework.  We believe that among the highest priority areas for potential revision are the following:

  1. Methods to integrate patient and clinician perspectives on the value of interventions that might not be adequately reflected in the scientific literature, elements of value intended to fall in the current value framework within “additional benefits or disadvantages” and “contextual considerations”
  2. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios: appropriate thresholds, best practice in capturing health outcomes through the QALY or other measures
  3. Methods to estimate the market uptake and “potential” short-term budget impact of new interventions as part of judging whether the introduction of a new intervention may raise affordability concerns without heightened medical management, lower prices, or other measures.
  4. Methods to set a threshold for potential short-term budget impact that can serve as a useful “alarm bell” for policymakers to signal consideration of whether affordability may need to be addressed through various measures in order to improve the impact of new interventions on overall health system value.

We Need Evidence-Based Analysis on the Value of Medicines

Connie’s Comments:

New medicines can be afforded by the rich and not the middle income or poor. After 2 years in the market, we can determine if the medicine works by receiving feedback from the public. Email your feedback to the above email. Let’s start monitoring our love ones about medicines they take. We can then effect greater health outcomes when monitoring and reporting of health care status, medications and support are reported to all health care teams.