NHC Considerations Guide for Patient Organizations

03/19/2020

The National Health Council’s (NHC’s) Considerations Guide for Patient Organizations Developing Comments on a Value Assessment is intended to be used as a tool by patient groups. It can assist in preparing actionable written comments on a specific value assessment. With this tool, patient groups will be better able to help value assessment bodies incorporate the patient perspective in a meaningful way when developing a value assessment.

This tool can be used by an organization’s staff or committee responsible for monitoring and engaging with framework developers. To get the most from this Guide, we recommend you review the entire document before beginning. It is organized around the following Considerations:

  • PICOTS Framework
  • Patient-Centered Data Sources
  • Patient Partnership and Transparency
  • Costs
  • Preferences and Utilities

The objective of this tool is to help patient groups think carefully about how a value assessment can be improved to better reflect patients’ experiences. Each consideration includes a series of related questions. Not all of them will apply to every value assessment.

For each Consideration:

  • Plan for the time you will need to evaluate each section. You may wish to work with an expert in health economics and/or outcomes research to develop your responses.
  • The considerations are simply a guide, do not feel obligated to comment on every consideration.
  • Provide constructive criticism, but also give credit where credit is due. If a value assessment body did a good job at addressing a section, let them know that you appreciate what they did with specific examples of how patient experiences were accurately reflected.
  • If you disagree with an approach taken by a value assessment body, try to suggest an alternative approach. This will help you develop a more balanced comment letter and build trust.
  • Provide evidence or cite peer-reviewed literature to back-up your statements. This will help the value assessment body do a better job when revising their assessment.

Download the document here.

 

Acknowledgements: Thank you to members of the National Health Council’s Value Work Group for contributing to development of this resource. This resource was partially funded through a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®) Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award (8620-NHC). Development of this resource was also supported by the Patient-Driven Vales in Healthcare Evaluation (PAVE) Center, a Center of Excellence supported by a grant from the PhRMA Foundation. Thank you to Allergan, Amgen, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, National Pharmaceutical Council, Pfizer, and PhRMA for sponsoring the NHC’s work on Value.

Disclaimer: The views presented in this resource are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute® (PCORI®), its Board of Governors, or Methodology Committee.