To promote achievable solutions in the ongoing debate on drug financing, Anthem, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company are offering two policy proposals, which are detailed in “Discovering New Medicines and New Ways to Pay for Them,” published on the Health Affairs blog.
The first proposal calls for clarifying federal regulation to reduce perceived barriers impeding conversations between health benefit companies and biopharmaceutical companies about drugs prior to the drugs being approved for sale.
The second proposal calls for changes to federal laws and regulations to mitigate the barriers that make it difficult to move toward value-based contracting.
“A change in policies could open the door to new opportunities for hospitalists and their employers to create more high-value care,” says Sam Nussbaum, MD, Anthem clinical advisor. “Today, hospitals are paid for seeing patients. What if hospitals participated in a value-based arrangement with manufacturers and insurers that included treating patients with a specific condition with a new therapy proven to be more effective in producing better health outcomes, including keeping patients out of the hospital?”
Reference
- Nussbaum S, Ricks D. Discovering new medicines and new ways to pay for them. Health Policy Lab. Available at: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/01/29/discovering-new-medicines-and-new-ways-to-pay-for-them/. Accessed February 15, 2016.