Could outcomes-based reimbursement work for medical devices?
In a blog published March 29 by Health Affairs, four researchers expressed the need for creative reimbursement systems to “promote accountability” for outcomes related to devices that treat cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Outcomes-based pricing agreements (OBAs) hold this potential, they wrote, provided they establish protections against inappropriate treatment for low-risk patients and offer degrees of payment based on the degree and length of benefit. OBAs have gained in popularity for pharmaceuticals but are still uncommon for medical devices, the bloggers pointed out.
To show how such an agreement could work for a device, they described a hypothetical OBA for percutaneous coronary intervention in the setting of stable angina.
“While uptake of OBAs for devices has been slow, we believe that OBAs can help to improve care value for patients being considered for device placement,” the authors wrote. “The viability of device OBAs may ultimately depend on how well they can be tailored to reflect the specific determinants of device outcomes relative to those for drugs, and whether the health system can address the unique challenges associated with promoting shared accountability for device outcomes.”
Read the full blog post below:
Daniel joined TriMed’s Chicago editorial team in 2017 as a Cardiovascular Business writer. He previously worked as a writer for daily newspapers in North Dakota and Indiana.