Dr Steve Pearson's Outlook on the Ongoing Updates to ICER's Value Framework

As the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) prepares to update its final value proposal framework, it has been aided by the constructive comments from different stakeholders, said ICER president Steve Pearson, MD, MSc. He predicts that coming years will see continued interest in how to utilize such frameworks.

Transcript (slightly modified)

How does ICER plan to update its value framework?

ICER has gone through a fairly long process now of getting public comment in 2 separate phases on our value framework, and we’ve actually received tremendously helpful suggestions in both phases. It’s taken us longer than we thought to get through the second phase, so we’ve been a bit delayed in announcing our final update proposals, but that should come out now within the next few weeks.

We’re really looking forward to continuing to work with stakeholders, because we learn as they learn as we continue to work together on these reports and as we go together to these public meetings. There will be further work to be done together, but we’re very exciting about putting out our update proposals and moving forward with the stakeholder groups.

What has been the uptake and use of value frameworks?

The growth of the use, if you will, the downloads have been going up and up. We hear a lot of anecdotal evidence, and there have been some surveys on the number of payers that are using our research to support both coverage decisions but also considerations around pricing and payment models.

I do think that there’s going to be continued interest in trying to figure out how to use value frameworks going forward. The value frameworks that are out there have very different histories, but also very different purposes, and so they’re kind of structured differently to meet those different goals. I think people are gaining more awareness of the reason that value frameworks don’t all look the same, because they have different functions, if you will.

I do think that a general purpose of trying to make as clear as possible and as fair as possible an approach to judging value is something that our health system really needs.