Federal Initiatives To Support Rapid Learning About New Technologies

Abstract

Health policy and financing reforms place increasing emphasis on the ability of doctors and patients to make informed, cost-conscious care decisions. The federal government is supporting new initiatives in Medicare to increase the supply of reliable information on the benefits and risks of health care technologies. Medicare also is working with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of prescription drugs and other items or services. The value of these efforts will depend on coordination among individuals and institutions in the public and private sectors; clarity about focus, purpose, and priorities; and adequate and reliable long-term funding. M an y c u r r e n t ly p o pu l a r a p p r oac h e s to improving quality, reducing cost, and expanding access to care depend on doctors' and patients' ability to make informed, cost-conscious decisions about their health care. This popularity evolved in large part from the expanding body of evidence demonstrating inefficient and inconsistent use of health care services and unsustainable trends in health care spending. If patients, clinicians, and other decisionmakers are responsible for making critical health care decisions, they need access to reliable information on the quality, outcomes, and costs of care. Despite considerable progress in producing this kind of information over the past several decades, much more is required to meet these decisionmakers' needs. This paper addresses federal initiatives, particularly those pursued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), designed to support the efficient development of information about the benefits, risks, and costs of health care technologies.w 1 4 0 2 6 J a n u a r y 2 0 0 7

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