The patient’s view of health care value

The U.S. health care system is undergoing a transformation in how it delivers and pays for care. As traditional fee-for-service gives way to value-based arrangements, understanding the “value” of health care has become a national priority. The National Health Council is focused on ensuring the voice of the patient and patient organizations are an integral part of the value discussion.

Value assessment advises whether a health service (e.g., drug, device, surgery) should be used, and if so, how it is best used in the health care system, and which patients are most likely to benefit from it. Assessments vary, but most look at the health benefits and risks of using the treatment or technology. They can also look at costs and any other wider impacts it may have on a population or on a society. It is the NHC’s position that value assessment for health care interventions is important, necessary, and can improve decision making. We work to ensure that value assessment is patient centered and includes and reflects direct input from patients. Please visit our Value Classroom and resources below to learn more!

Resources

The NHC, in partnership with the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, assembled stakeholders from patient, employer, and VA organizations and facilitated two Roundtable dialogues to explore alignment between patient and employer perspectives related to value. You can find the findings here.

Researchers, value assessors, and the patient community agree that conventional approaches to value assessment (VA) often inadequately account for the many dimensions in VA that are important to patients. Researchers have suggested multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as one promising approach to provide a more patient-centered and comprehensive measure of value.

On November 19, the National Health Council and the National Pharmaceutical Council held a webinar, in tandem with the release of a corresponding white paper, to explore topics related to value, patient-centricity and MCDA.

Click here to learn more.

A tool to help evaluate the patient centeredness of value models and to guide value model developers on the meaningful incorporation of patient engagement throughout their processes. 

Read it here

A collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, the NHC, patient community leaders, and payer and industry stakeholders. The Center strives to promote the inclusion of diverse patient voices in research to help uncover the elements of value in health care that are most important to patients. 
Learn more here.

The Work Group currently has representatives from 20 patient groups with either prior direct experience with value assessment organizations or that expect to soon. The Work Group is only open to NHC patient-group members (voluntary health agency member category) and by invitation.

  • “Back to School with the National Health Council: Patient Community Training on Value Assessment,” in Washington, DC, on September 6, 2019 – Learn more here
  • “Value Assessment Frameworks” at the BIO Patient and Health Advocacy Summit on October 31, 2019 – Learn more here

On July 31, 2018, the National Health Council (NHC) convened representatives from US organizations that have produced value frameworks/assessments over the last several years with participants from patient groups that have interacted with those organizations. The objectives of the meeting were to:

  • Articulate a shared vision for what marks success in enhanced patient centricity in value assessment (VA) and
  • Outline tangible, feasible actions that can be taken to achieve that success. The actions may be on the part of patient groups, value-assessment organizations (VA bodies), or both in collaboration.

Read about the findings here.

Project Kickoff Announcement

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