The Galen Institute "[Ezekiel Emanuel] sings in what he calls “a growing chorus” that wants to require insurance companies and government programs to “pay for value.” Value-based purchasing is not a cutting-edge idea. It’s what you do every time you go to the supermarket and decide whether to pay $13 for an organic roasted chicken or $5 for the non-organic alternative. “In the rest of the economy,” he writes, “we let individuals determine value. They decide whether a new gadget is worth the expense.”
"But that won’t do in health care, Emanuel informs us. Letting doctors and patients make medical decisions is a dangerous thing. “It is not just patients’ perspectives we need to take into account. Patients get the benefit, but all of us are paying the bill.”
"Decisions about clinical value should not be made in the clinic, Emanuel argues. “Because we all pay, all Americans have to have a voice in determining value.”
"By “all Americans” he means government, guided by people of his academic pedigree.
"Dr. Emanuel offers a formula, borrowed from the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), for “determining value” and thus for deciding whether your medicine, surgery or treatment is worth the price. The NHS calculates “Quality-Adjusted Life Years” [QALY], a metric that takes into account both the quantity and quality of life generated by medicines and other treatments." . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment