Highlights...
V-BID Faculty Receive National Award
On June 15, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation presented V-BID faculty with the 2009 Health Care Research Award for “Impact of Decreasing Copayments on Medication Adherence Within a Disease Management Environment,” published in Health Affairs in January 2008. Selected unanimously by the judges as the best health services research of the year, the article revealed the potential of reducing copayments on high value pharmaceuticals to alter patient behavior and improve medication adherence.
NIHCM Foundation
Press Release
May 14, 2009
Federal Legislation to Advance Concepts of Value-Based Insurance Design in Medicare
Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) introduced S. 1040, the “Seniors’ Medication Copayment Reduction Act of 2009,” advancing the principles of value-based insurance design in the Medicare population. This legislation will establish a five-year demonstration program using value-based insurance design to assess the impact of a reduction in copayments or coinsurance charged Medicare beneficiaries for certain high value medications on adherence to those medications.
Senator Stabenow Press Release
Senator Hutchison Article
More Information
Read the Bill
April 29, 2009
Value Based Insurance Design Captures Prominent Role In Capitol Hill Health Care Reform Debate. Read More
April 7, 2009
"A Controlled Trial of Value- Based Insurance Design -- The MHealthy: Focus on Diabetes Trial" describing the design and implementation of the first prospective controlled trial of targeted co- payment reductions for high value therapies for individuals with diabetes has been published in the current issue of Implementation Science. Read More
March 26, 2009
The National Pharmaceutical Council co-sponsored a town hall on Value Based Benefit Design with the New York Business Group on Health (NYBGH).
Watch the webcast on Value Based Benefit Design: Promoting Value, Quality and Access
March 20, 2009
Commonwealth Fund Quality Matters Podcast: Increasing the Value of Health Care
Listen to an Interview with Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, Co-Director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design of the University of Michigan
March 3, 2009
Immediate Options Exist to Integrate Value-Based Insurance Design into
Medicare Part D
On March 3, the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design and Avalere Health released a paper showing that the Medicare program could immediately modernize its benefit structure to incorporate value-based insurance design. Read Paper
Read Press Release
February 6, 2009
Senator Debbie Stabenow and Representative John Dingell
Host Congressional Staff Briefing
“Value-Based Insurance Design: Restoring Health to the Health Care Reform Debate”
Read Story
View Dr. Fendrick's PowerPoint presentation from the briefing (2.26MB PDF)
January 5, 2009
Staying Healthy in a Tough Economy -
While many individuals are dealing with cutbacks, it is important that health care remain a top priority, says Center Co-director A. Mark Fendrick, MD. Read Press Release
Watch a video of Dr. Fendrick explaining ways that patients can continue to adhere to their health care regimen, despite economic hardships.
The University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design was established in 2005 to develop, evaluate, and promote value-based insurance initiatives that achieve improvements in health outcomes and contain health care costs. The Center is the first academic venue in which faculty with both clinical and economic expertise conduct empirical research to determine the health and economic impact of innovative benefit designs.
Value-based insurance design offers a potential solution to the health care financing crisis. Value – the clinical benefit achieved for the money spent – is absent from the current dialogue on how to solve the health care dilemma. Instead, the dialogue focuses on two trends in benefit design – cost containment and quality improvement – which create a conflict of incentives for patients. For example, employers increasingly enroll beneficiaries in expensive disease management programs designed to improve patient self-management, often by intervening to enhance compliance with specific medications. However, at the same time, rising copayments and greater cost-sharing create financial barriers that discourage the use of recommended services. When patients are required to pay more for their health care, it is well known that they buy less – of both essential and excessive therapies alike. Value-based benefit packages would adjust out-of-pocket costs on an assessment of the clinical benefit to the specific patient population. Thus, the more clinically beneficial the therapy for the patient, the lower that patient's cost share would be. By aligning financial incentives, this strategy would encourage the use of high-value care while discouraging the use of low-value or unproven services.
Watch a video of Dr. Fendrick explaining the concept of "value-based insurance design" and its implications to patients, employers and insurers.