Cash checks on medical innovations

Health insurance companies demand strict controls for medical innovations

01/07/2013

The German health insurance companies demand that new treatment methods be subjected to thorough reviews in the future before they are approved for widespread use.

Patient-relevant benefit
Given the risks for patients, all new treatment methods should be thoroughly reviewed in the future before widespread use. This demand the German health insurance in a current position paper, which states: „In the future, medical innovations must prove the patient-relevant benefits before their nationwide introduction. "

New therapies repeatedly raise doubts
If not enough is known about the benefits and harms of new research and treatment methods, they may initially only be used in clinical trials. The reason for the demand is that new therapies would cause repeated doubts, although they are already widely used. In the recent past, this involved, for example, certain joint prostheses, heart valve prostheses or balloon catheters.

New medicines are being tested
New medicines are already being tested for their added value, which in part causes considerable dissatisfaction in the industry. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have been pressured by the Pharmaceutical Market Reorganization Act (AMNOG) to prove that a newly approved drug is better than the one previously available on the market. Often, such added value is not verifiable. The health insurances now generally demand a consistent assessment of benefits in new diagnostics and new therapies, also in relation to the costs. The insurances also demand that patients, but also health insurances and doctors, should be able to read far more information about the quality in medical practices and clinics. Both about successes as well as about deficiencies. (Ad)