Dr Ilene Hollin Outlines Differing Definitions of Value

Patients, payers, and providers all view value in different ways, and they all need to be taken into account in value frameworks, said Ilene Hollin, PhD, MPH, the National Pharmaceutical Council and University of Southern California Schaeffer Center’s Postdoctoral Health Policy Fellow.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How do different healthcare stakeholders view value differently?

Different stakeholders view value differently in a few ways. Patients, for instance, when they think about value, they are thinking about “how does this therapy help me achieve my life objectives?” Payers, on the other hand, are think about value and then designing coverage policies accordingly in terms of how to give patients access to the therapies that meet those life objectives, but they also have to balance that with their fiduciary responsibility.

Essentially, this is an issue of balancing patient access and costs. Patients have a bit of a more individual viewpoint when thinking about value, whereas payers have to think on a more population based level.

How can these differing viewpoints be taken into account as new value assessment frameworks are created?

Different viewpoints can be taken into account as more value assessment frameworks are created by tailoring them to the specific end-user. Secondly, by making sure they represent a range of values that account for the spectrum of preferences.