AMCP CEO Susan A. Cantrell, RPh, CAE, to Participate in ISPOR 2018 Conference Session on Value-Assessments and Drug Coverage Decisions

Alexandria, Va., May 18, 2018 — Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) CEO Susan A. Cantrell, RPh, CAE, will represent the payers’ perspective in a panel discussion on the use of value assessments in drug coverage decisions at the upcoming ISPOR 2018 Conference, May 19-23, in Baltimore.

ISPOR 2018 is the annual U.S. meeting of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Cantrell will participate in a May 21 session titled, “What Role for Value Assessment in U.S. Private Payers’ Specialty Drug Coverage Decisions.”

The two other panelists are Sara Traigle van Geertruyden, JD, Executive Director of Partnership to Improve Patient Care; and Randy Burkholder, BA, Vice President of Policy and Research, PhRMA. The moderator is James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, Associate Professor, Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center.

The session focuses on the increasing use of value assessment (e.g., reports issued by Institute for Clinical and Economic Review) throughout the U.S. health care system. In recent years value assessments have increasingly informed debate among patients, providers, payers and policy makers about the value of medical technology. However, it remains unclear how these assessments inform payer drug coverage policy, the description notes. 

The panel will discuss research that has found variation in payers’ reported use of value assessments in their coverage decisions of specialty drugs. Cantrell will address payer evidence requirements and how value assessments inform decision-making. van Geertruyden will provide a patient’s perspective, and will discuss the need for clarity as to how payers use value assessments to guide patients’ access to medical technology. And Burkholder will describe how uncertainty in payers’ use of value assessment can lead to challenges in bringing innovations to the market.