IOM Review Recommends Centralized Agency To Study Comparative Effectiveness

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 08 Apr 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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An Institute of Medicine committee review released Friday at an Alliance for Health Reform forum that examined the process of comparing the effectiveness of alternative treatments recommended that Congress create a semi-private government agency to centralize such studies, CQ HealthBeat reports.

The proposed agency would conduct comparison tests of existing and new therapies and help avoid having health insurers and not-for-profit groups from duplicate each other's work, according to CQ HealthBeat.

CQ HealthBeat reports that the forum was conducted as congressional lawmakers have begun to consider whether to force the health care industry to conduct comparative tests to determine the best treatments for patients.

According to Wilhelmine Miller, director of the IOM review and an associate research professor at George Washington University, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality currently is doing some work on comparative effectiveness and could be a model for the proposed agency.

Reaction
David Nexon, a spokesperson for the Advanced Medical Technology Association and former health adviser to Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), said, "Comparative effectiveness should not be used to deny coverage for a safe and effective treatment," adding, "Making blanket coverage denials is wrong."

Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, said, "Not to look at comparative effectiveness as a basis for [insurance coverage] determinations makes no sense to us."

Carolyn Clancy, director of AHRQ, said that her agency often finds that each compared drug works but that "some are better in certain circumstances," according to CQ HealthBeat. Clancy added that it is essential that government and private agencies collaborate to ensure the efforts and process are open to public review. Clancy said, "If everyone can see and understand the work, then there will not be a 'black box'" (Lubbes, CQ HealthBeat, 4/4).

A kaisernetwork.org webcast of the forum is available online.

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