The National Partnership for Women & Families has produced a very informative fact sheet about Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER).
It defines CER and then lays out some of the myths, with corresponding responses. The federal government put money toward CER in the stimulus bill and national health reform will most likely include additional CER provisions. The goal of CER is to provide information to consumers and medical providers to allow them to make informed choices among treatment options for a given condition.
Some of the critics of CER are concerned that it will lead to rationing of health care, with decisions on care being made on the basis of cost rather than quality. However, as the fact sheet points out, decisions today are often made with a lack of full information, at times leading to poorer quality care, whether or not it costs more or less than other options. From the consumer perspective, the hope is that CER will allow patients and providers to have full and fully informed conversations about treatment options. This will, in turn, lead to true partnerships between patients and providers, better treatment outcomes, and higher levels of consumer satisfaction with the health care system and their quality of care.
Massachusetts is looking at using CER research to allow for improvements in how treatment decisions are made. The Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council recently approved a “Roadmap to Cost Containment” that recommends, among other strategies for reducing cost and improving quality, the creation of an entity that would assess existing CER research and determine how best to disseminate the findings to providers, consumers, insurers and employers and recommend tools and resources for implanting the use of the information for treatment decisions.
-Deborah W. Wachenheim
