Partnership to Improve Patient Care

Despite recent media accounts, PIPC is decidedly not an "anti-reform" group. We are pro-reform, and we were established to promote sound, patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER). PIPC's mission statement, adopted in 2008 when the Partnership was founded, states that PIPC is "dedicated to supporting CER that strengthens physician and patient decision making, improves health care quality, and supports continued medical progress." 

Since our inception, we have been doing just that, working in support of patient-centered CER legislation in the Senate (S. 1213) and the House of Representatives (H.R. 2502). Our goal is consistent with that expressed by President Obama in his speech to the AMA and with House leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer in their recent op-ed in USA Today.

Regarding the fear that "comparing the relative effectiveness of treatments and drugs will lead to rationing," we agree that "it's just being smart" to empower doctors and patients with the information they need to make good health care decisions. We are working diligently toward this goal. While CER won't automatically result in policies that restrict patient access to care in order to cut costs, there is a risk that it could. As stated in a news report last year, "Former CBO Director Peter Orszag admitted that ‘the big kick’ in savings associated with comparative effectiveness research would stem from insurers—and likely the federal government—implementing ‘changes in financial incentives tied to the research.’ 

However, the CBO report admits that such decisions ‘could be difficult and controversial,’ and further concedes studies suggesting that ‘patients who might benefit from more-expensive treatments might be made worse off’ as a result of changes in reimbursement patterns.”  

We need smart CER policy to make sure that patients aren't "made worse off." Cost-containment policies that treat every patient the same and overlook the fact that different people have different needs and preferences will undermine good patient care and impede the ability of doctors and patients to tailor care to individual needs. We need patient-centered CER that creates an independent institute to guide the research, focuses on health outcomes and not cost effectiveness, improves health care quality and recognizes differences in patient needs due to their medical condition, race, ethnicity, or genetic variations.

We're pleased that AARP and over 100 organizations representing providers, patients, minority health groups, people with disabilities, and many others have joined us in supporting patient-centered CER by endorsing the Baucus-Conrad CER bill (S. 1213) in the Senate and the Schrader bill (H.R. 2502) in the House of Representatives.