On March 1, 2023, Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), along with other Senate Finance Committee Republicans, sent a letter to Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), urging the agencies to end the use of quality-adjusted life year (QALYs) and other discriminatory value assessment metrics in federal health care programs. QALYs are theoretical measures that represent the degree to which a drug extends life and improves quality of life.
In the letter, Committee members emphasize that QALYs could reverse the trend of advances in treatments for conditions affecting vulnerable populations. The members draw support from reports of the National Council on Disability (NCD), the Arthritis Foundation, and the National Organization for Rare Orders, organizations that all have expressed concerns over the discriminatory nature of QALYs. The letter highlights the dangers of cost-effectiveness analysis frameworks by briefly discussing drug pricing crises in European countries and emphasizes that the U.S. must take proactive steps to avoid such crises. The members request that HHS and CMS provide them with specific steps and plans the agencies have taken, or plan to take, to prohibit discriminatory metrics. The letter is signed by Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Thom Tillis (R-NC), John Barrasso (R-WY), Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Coryn (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Tim Scott (R-SC), James Lankford (R-OK), and Ron Johnson (R-WI). The Committee members sought responses by the close of business on March 3, 2023.
Read the press release here.
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Last Updated on March 12, 2023 by Aimed Alliance
