NPC in AJPB: Guiding Practices for Patient-Centered Value Assessment

In response to growing concerns about health care costs, during the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the development and use of value assessment frameworks. A variety of physician, payer and patient-based organizations have created these frameworks as a way to measure the value of a health care treatment and define value through the lens of specific target audiences, and the list of organizations developing frameworks is growing.

In response to growing concerns about health care costs, during the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the development and use of value assessment frameworks. A variety of physician, payer and patient-based organizations have created these frameworks as a way to measure the value of a health care treatment and define value through the lens of specific target audiences, and the list of organizations developing frameworks is growing.

In his latest commentary for the American Journal of Pharmacy Benefits, National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) President Dan Leonard examines the new and evolving area of value assessments, which has the potential to significantly affect payer coverage and reimbursement policies as well as the resulting access to treatments for patients. Establishing and adhering to guideposts for framework developers and users, like NPC’s Guiding Practices for Patient-Centered Value Assessment, can help ensure that value assessment frameworks are effective tools for advancing patient care and achieving better outcomes for patients rather than well-intentioned but flawed tools that impede such progress.

“Importantly, there should be a broad array of frameworks in healthcare decision making. Most stakeholders understand that taking a one-size-fits-all approach and relying on a single framework to evaluate a health care treatment or intervention is not sufficient to inform care for diverse populations,” Mr. Leonard writes. “Utilizing multiple frameworks and other decision-making tools can provide far more information as well as important and different perspectives, such as those of physicians, consumers, and especially patients.”

Read the commentary on the AJPB website.