Seminar

Speakers included:

• Julia Earnshaw, GSK and Chair of PIHEG
• Eileen Robertson, Department of Health
• Gillian Leng, NICE
• Cam Donaldson, University of Newcastle

Payment by results

The NHS in England is introducing a system of paying hospitals and other health care providers on the basis of the volume of work they perform adjusted for case mix. The policy of giving providers a fixed payment, as set out in a national tariff, has been termed payment by results and was debated recently in an OHE/York Centre for Health Economics conference (proceedings published by OHE as “Activity based funding for hospitals – English policy, international experience”, edited by John Sussex and Andrew Street). The PIHEG meeting heard from the Department of Health on latest developments in this policy and how it related to other national initiatives such as NICE guidance.

York CHE/OHE Survey on post-launch data collection

Adrian Towse, OHE, summarised a project he was undertaking jointly with Mike Drummond at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York. The survey of UK heads of health economics/outcomes research seeks to understand their perspectives on post launch research and on NICE requests for additional research. The results will complement those obtained from a similar survey of global heads of health economics/outcomes research on post-launch requests for research in other European countries.

Update on ABPI issues

Clive Pritchard, OHE, updated the group on the latest developments in health technology assessment across the UK.

Implementation of NICE guidance

Gillian Leng, recently appointed NICE’s Implementation Systems Director, provided an overview of the programme of work being undertake by NICE designed to better enable the NHS to implement NICE guidance.

What is the value to society of a QALY? An initial view from the Social Value of a QALY project

In a recent article in the BMJ (volume 329, p224-227), Michael Rawlins and Tony Culyer set out NICE’s position on the cost effectiveness ratio as a basis for accepting or rejecting a technology. They state that “NICE would be unlikely to reject a technology with a ratio in the range of £5000-£15000/QALY solely on the grounds of cost ineffectiveness but would need special reasons for accepting technologies with ratios over £25000-£35000/QALY presentation, Cam Donaldson provided an overview and some preliminary findings of a project which tackles this issue by attempting to estimate the social value of a QALY.