In a new Reality Check-Up insight, Director of Health Care Policy Michael Baker explains that health technology assessments (HTAs) in single-payer systems, while intended to guide fair and cost-effective care, often create more problems than they solve.
Key points:
HTAs are evaluations used by health care payers to determine the value of various health technologies and interventions such as treatment protocols, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.
These assessments are reductive determinations of whether a patient’s prescribed medical intervention is of acceptable value from an average, generalized standpoint.
In single-payer systems, where coverage decisions are binding and alternatives limited, the harm posed by the reductive use of HTAs can be life-threatening; for patients facing serious illness, for example, HTAs can create an unnecessary barrier to care rather than the intended safeguard of fairness.