Governments Need Better Guidance to Maximise Value for Money: The Case of Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee

Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
Drew CarterHossein Haji Ali Afzali

Abstract

In Australia, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) makes recommendations to the Minister for Health on which pharmaceuticals should be subsidised. Given the implications of PBAC recommendations for government finances and population health, PBAC is required to provide advice primarily on the basis of value for money. The aim of this article is twofold: to describe some major limitations of the current PBAC decision-making process in relation to its implicit aim of maximising value for money; and to suggest what might be done toward overcoming these limitations. This should also offer lessons for the many decision-making bodies around the world that are similar to PBAC. The current PBAC decision-making process is limited in two important respects. First, it features the use of an implicit incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) threshold that may not reflect the opportunity cost of funding a new technology, with unknown and possibly negative consequences for population health. Second, the process does not feature a means of systematically assessing how a technology may be of greater or lesser value in light of factors that are not captured by standard measures of cost effectiveness, but which are nonetheless...Continue Reading

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Citations

Apr 21, 2018·The International Journal of Health Planning and Management·Robyn LambertHossein Haji Ali Afzali
Feb 27, 2019·Multiple Sclerosis : Clinical and Laboratory Research·Andrew J PalmerHasnat Ahmad
Sep 24, 2019·PharmacoEconomics·Jörgen Möller
Sep 1, 2016·Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science·Ya-Ting YangMeir-Chyun Tzou
May 21, 2020·Health & Social Care in the Community·Miia RahjaTracy Comans
Jun 28, 2018·PharmacoEconomics·Bing WangHelen Marshall
Dec 24, 2017·PharmacoEconomics·Laura Catherine EdneyJonathan Karnon
Oct 8, 2020·Headache·Susan TuElla Zomer
Nov 4, 2020·International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care·Nadine T HillockJaklin Eliott
Jan 19, 2021·International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care·Hossein Haji Ali AfzaliJonathan Karnon
Jul 27, 2021·BMC Health Services Research·Maryke WilkinsonTamara Kredo

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