Expert panels decide whether extra years added by certain treatments worth the cost
By
January 21, 2021
A controversial method used by some countries’ government-organized health care systems to determine whether certain patients will get expensive life-saving treatments could become an issue in this state and country.
According to a new report from the Goldwater Institute, both the Trump administration and the new Biden administration have proposed or considered using review panels to decide whether America’s Medicare and Medicaid programs should pay for certain treatments.
Under this system, the panels assess and judge whether a drug or treatment is worth its cost in terms of the value it offers for patients. The key measurement is called “Quality-Adjusted Life Years,” or QALY.