SYMPOSIUM: WHAT SHOULD THE ROLE OF CEA BE IN HEALTH POLICY AND MEDICAL DECISION MAKING?

Cost-effectiveness analysis is explicitly forbidden in some areas of U.S. health policy (CMS, PCORI) while other countries routinely utilize CEA in coverage decisions.  In an era where health care cost containment is paramount, what is the role of CEA or what are alternative approaches? 

The purpose of this symposium is to examine current U.S. barriers to applying CEA to health policy and medical decision making, explore how other countries have applied CEA, and to explore alternatives to CEA that could improve policymaking and medical decision making. 

Drs. Lisa Prosser (Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health),  Michael O'Grady (Senior Fellow in the Health Care Research for NORC at the University of Chicago) and Mark Sculpher (Professor of Health Economics and the Director of the Programme on Economic Evaluation and Health Technology Assessment at the University of York) will discuss:

1) What the current barriers to CEA influence on policy and medical decision making are in the US and in the UK; 2) How different countries apply CEA at the level of policymakers, providers, and patients; 3) How countries have tried to garner buy-in from the population for the use of CEA in Health Policy Decision Making; and 4) Potential alternatives to CEA that could be used to guide decisions about resource allocation for health policy and medical decisions.