E.V.I.dently® - July 2021
In this issue: meet NPC's new president and CEO, learn how we can tackle low-value care, what we need to know about the budget cap dilemma, and catch up on news you might have missed!
Welcome to the New E.V.I.dently® Newsletter!
We’ve redesigned the look and feel of E.V.I.dently® to provide you with a more visually engaging newsletter experience, while continuing to focus on timely research, analysis and news that you’ve come to expect from us over the years. We’ve also launched our new website, which includes an improved search function. Still getting to know NPC? Check out our new video about NPC’s work, goals and overall mission.
NPC Highlights
Meet John O’Brien, NPC’s New President and CEO
Veteran drug pricing and health policy expert John M. O’Brien, Pharm.D., MPH, joined NPC on June 1 as president and CEO. He is responsible for overseeing NPC’s policy research and communications capacity, partnerships with other health care organizations, and strategic vision. His broad experience spans the private sector, academia and government. What’s most important? His commitment to working with all partners, across all sectors. Read more about his vision for improving our health care system.
How the Care We Need is Crowded Out by the Care We Don’t
Have you ever run into medical treatments that were inefficient, costly and didn’t improve your health in any significant way? If you have, then you’ve experienced low-value care (LVC) – wasted spending that costs the U.S. health care system more than $340 billion each year. The problem is clear, and increasingly, potential solutions are coming into focus. In a new blog post on the NPC website, Chief Science Officer and Executive Vice President, Robert Dubois, MD, PhD, discusses the tangible steps needed to tackle the problem.
Do Budget Caps Put a Cap on Good Patient Outcomes?
More and more, states are using budget caps – budget planning tools designed to help policymakers set a limit on annual health spending growth. An NPC study shows that budget caps have the potential to create savings, but can also result in patient harm if not designed well. The analysis showed that pharmaceutical level budget caps, when compared to aggregate budget caps, lead to worse health outcomes in all cases. NPC’s Vice President of Research, Mike Ciarametaro, MBA, described the results of the study during a virtual panel discussion on state decisions to implement budget caps and the strategies, challenges, and relevance of these decisions on patient health.
Mark Your Calendar
Drug Rebates in Medicare Part D: A Virtual Event From the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy
Tuesday, July 27, 2021, 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET
Join NPC's Dr. O'Brien for a webinar hosted by the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy, where panelists will discuss how increasing reliance on rebates burdens many Medicare patients and explore policy solutions.
Financial Times: The Future of American Healthcare – Shaping a New Era of Innovation and Investment
Tuesday, September 14, 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET
NPC is proud to be a supporting partner for this digital conference from Financial Times. Panelists will discuss the future of American health care, including topics related to legislation, innovation, and investment.
ICYMI
- What are the latest spending and usage trends for medicines in the U.S. and what we can expect in the coming years? NPC's Dr. O'Brien participated in a discussion hosted by the IQVIA Institute on July 14th to explore the implications of current trends. In the search for policy solutions to address health spending, he highlighted the importance of following the data and ensuring access to medicines for patients. Register to watch the webinar on-demand.
- How can we better tackle social determinants of health? NPC’s Dr. Dubois says building necessary data infrastructure is critical to effectively measuring the impact of investments made to improve health equity. Watch the webinar co-hosted by NPC and AcademyHealth or read the recap.
- Shared decision-making and patient decision aid interventions promote better patient engagement, but do they create cost savings or reduce utilization? Check out the three takeaways from a new NPC/Discern Health study, presented by NPC’s Vice President of Health Services Research, Kimberly Westrich, MA, and Discern colleagues at the Pharmacy Quality Alliance's 2021 Annual Meeting.
- Could price controls derail medical innovation and improvements in patient health? NPC’s Mr. Ciarametaro recently discussed the need for tradeoffs and the potential risks of policy proposals to lower the costs of prescription drugs. Watch the webinar on demand.
Building the data infrastructure is critical to effectively measuring the impact of investments made to improve health equity.