Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
That is the news out of the UK today. A press release from the United Kingdom government states: A 25% increase in medicine pricing corresponds to 2 changes to the way NICE evaluates medicines; a change to the cost effectiveness thresholds and the introduction of a new value set for judging health states.NICE currently assesses value for money…
The Times reports that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is revising it’s approach to how it approves new medicines that treat rare diseases. How? Principally by allowing for single arm trials with real-world ‘digital twin’ controls as well as expediting the approval process. The new plan, which is being launched on…
That is the topic from a recent study by Hayes et al. (2024): Payments for some diagnostic scans undertaken in outpatient settings were unbundled from Diagnosis Related Group based payments in England in April 2013 to address under-provision. Unbundled scans attracted additional payments of between £45 and £748 directly following the reform. We examined the…
Perhaps so according to the health policy editor at the Guardian. He writes that as NHS has grown weaker, private medical insurance is becoming a more attractive option. The long delays for NHS care that are now endemic – and cause so much worry, risk and harm to those left waiting – are not going…
According to the OECD, In 2021 the U.S. spent $1,432/capita on pharmaceuticals compared to only $517/per capita in the UK. The UK’s figure was slightly higher that Poland and Norway, but less than Latvia, the Slovak Republic, Portugal and Romania. How does the UK spend so little on drugs? Many people focus on the efforts…
A new study by Choi et al. (2020) compares the health of individuals aged 55-64 in the US compared to England. They use data from Health and Retirement Study (HRS)–in the US–and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) for 2008-2016. Health is measured across 16 outcomes: 5 self-assessed outcomes, 3 directly measured outcomes, and…
A paper by Frew and Breheny (2019), aimed to answer this question by conducting a Delphi Panel of English and Welsh decision makers who allocated funding for public health for local government. Unsurprisingly, cost, health outcomes and quality of life were the most important factors. Beyond these top 3 factors, interventions’ impact on productivity and…
Typical hours when illness strikes is 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. In the US, typical physician hours are 9-5, Monday through Friday. Although this is changing (CVS Minute Clinics have Saturday and Sunday hours), it is still difficult for individuals who are work and are ill to see a doctor without taking…
The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is well known for providing free care to all its citizens. However, will £0 out-of-pocket payments be a thing of the past? Maybe so according to a recent survey of UK Members of Parliament (MPs). Pharmafile reports: In response to the question “if the challenges facing the NHS are…
General Practitioners (GPs) in the UK NHS are paid a mixture of capitation, lump sum allowances, and a pay-for-performance bonus. The P4P element, the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), rewards GPs according to their performance on a large number of indicators. QOF payments represented up to 20% of GPs ’ income in the first year…