Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
At drug launch, treatments have some benefit and cost. However, drug prices may change over time. Additionally, treatment benefits may rise or fall depending on how well efficacy translates into effectiveness and how well physicians learn to manage adverse events. Mattingly and Love (2020) provide a case study of how cost-effectiveness analysis can change over…
That is what is proposed by Dana Goldman in his article in The Hill. He uses the case of Louisiana’s approach to pay for treatments for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to make the point. The [Louisiana] Department of Health is working on a new strategy to expand access—one that involves a licensing deal. The state…
The American Journal of Managed Care has an interesting special issue on treatment for the hepatitus C virus (HCV). Jay Bhattacharya provides the introductory commentary, and starts off with the following. Although the medical prospects facing patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) have never been better, the prospect of gaining access to a cure is another…
Treatments for the hepatitis C virus (HCV) are expensive. At one point they cost over $80,000 per year, although costs have decreased since then. To prevent moral hazard, should insurance companies rely on cost sharing to decrease utilization? An article by Lakdawalla, Linthicum, and Vanderpuye-Orgle (2016) argues that they shouldn’t. Cost sharing appears even less efficient when…
The Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is the most common blood-borne infection and cause of liver disease requiring transplantation in the U.S. More than one percent of Americans has a chronic HCV infection. As I describe in a series of posts, individuals with HCV are much more likely to develop cirrhosis and up to 5% will…
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection increases total healthcare costs but the effect of the severity of liver disease associated with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) on healthcare costs has not been well studied. A paper by Gordon et al. (2012) answers this question. The authors stratify patients by liver disease severity–noncirrhotic liver disease (NCD), compensated cirrhosis…
Incarcerated individuals are more likely to have the hepatitis C virus (HCV) than those who live in the community. The high prevalence of HCV infection in the prison population is largely due tot he fact that prisoners hare more likely to have a history of intravenous drug use. “A history of intravenous drug use is…
The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is largely curable: “In clinical trials, antiviral therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PEG-IFNR) has resulted in a sustained viral response (SVR) (that is, cure) of HCV infection in 46% of patients infected with genotype 1 (which infects 70% and 90% of chronically infected white and African American persons in…
The global burden of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is distressing. “[A]n estimated 130–170 million persons (2%–3% of the world’s population) are living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection [1]. This infection, particularly in its chronic form, is associated with sizable morbidity and mortality. More than 350 000 deaths are attributed to HCV infection each…
According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, in the U.S. the answer is yes. “National serum surveys indicate that approximately 3.2 million persons in the United States are living with chronic hepatitis C (10), 66% of whom were born between 1945 and 1964 and are now entering a period of risk for…