September 27, 2016
New data show that street drugs, not prescription opioids, directly caused 85 percent of opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts during 2013 and 2014.
September 23, 2016
Medicine is at a crossroads; cardiology in particular. I saw this fact magnified at the American Society for Preventive Cardiology’s recent town hall on access barriers to PCSK9 inhibitors.
September 23, 2016
Under prevailing benefit designs in both public and private health insurance systems, patients may find that pivotal decisions about their…
September 22, 2016
What if discussing clinical trials opportunities were a standard part of patient care? This question spurred discussion among members of a diverse panel at a recent Coalition for Clinical Trials Awareness roundtable event.
September 20, 2016
A United Nations panel has a controversial idea for improving patient access to necessary medicines: curb intellectual property rights.
September 16, 2016
Along with other advocacy, education and health care organizations, the Institute for Patient Access wrote to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review this week offering 12 suggestions on how to improve its value framework. The letter responded to ICER’s request for feedback as it prepares to update its framework for 2017.
September 15, 2016
The Institute for Patient Access and the National Coalition for Infant Health hosted the 2016 Infant Health Policy…
September 15, 2016
Data from a clinical study in Norway may soon explain the effects of switching stable patients from a biologic medicine, infliximab, to its biosimilar counterpart. But, as the Global Alliance for Patient Access argues in a new white paper, policymakers must accurately interpret what the NOR-SWITCH study will – and will not – demonstrate about the safety of switching.
September 13, 2016
Most young children encounter what’s known as Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, before age two. It’s a common seasonal virus with flu-like symptoms. But as a new video from the National Coalition for Infant Health explains, premature infants whose health plans don’t cover preventive RSV treatment may suffer – and unnecessarily so.
September 12, 2016
In light of the ICER value framework’s impact on health care, patients and physicians across the United States, we offer the following 12 suggestions for the updated framework to be implemented in 2017. These suggestions focus primarily on two areas for which ICER requested feedback: 1) Integration of patient and clinician perspectives on the value of interventions, and 2) Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios and thresholds.
