Cost-Effectiveness Thresholds Used in the United States versus Most Favored Nations AbstractObjectives. Cost-effectiveness thresholds inform whether health interventions represent good value for money, yet their use varies across countries

Efforts to align U.S. drug prices with “most favored nation” countries would also import how those countries define value in healthcare.

New CEVR research in Health Affairs Scholar examines what this could mean for pricing, access, and innovation.

Read at: tinyurl.com/3j9m9e7w

The timeliness of health plan drug coverage policy changes to FDA label revisions AbstractIntroduction. Health plan coverage policies determine specialty drug access and should reflect evolving standards of care; however, the timeliness

How quickly do health plans update coverage when FDA revises specialty drug labels?

We analyzed ~1,300 coverage decisions from 2019-2022. ~30% of policies already aligned w/ label changes. Plans took a median 30 weeks to update other policies, were faster when labels narrowed

tinyurl.com/2vzn95k3

FDA approvals of specialty drugs, 2000-2024 Specialty drugs, used to treat complex conditions such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and rare diseases, including both biologics and high-cost small mol

Studies about specialty drug spending typically focus on cost and utilization trends, which can obscure how the increasing number of specialty drug approvals contributes to these costs.

Read our new study exploring trends in FDA specialty drug approvals to learn more: tinyurl.com/yx464kda

Don't miss an opportunity to work with our renowned faculty! Applications for our 2026 CEA Registry Summer Fellowship close March 5th.

What is the Fellowship program like? 2025 Fellowship alumna Taylor (Hao-Hsin) Huang shares her experience at www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzEZ...

CEVR's 2025 "By the Numbers" highlights our impressive output for last year:

CEVR’s Tara Lavelle, PhD, joined the Nemours Well Beyond Medicine Podcast to discuss her research showing that rapid genomic screening for critically ill infants can save money versus standard testing.

Listen here tinyurl.com/4ds6ry8h

Drug Prices, Rebates, and Health Plan Coverage Restrictions This cross-sectional study examines the association of drug prices and rebates with health plan coverage restrictions in the US.

How much do drug prices and rebates shape health plan coverage decisions?

We analyzed ~6,700 coverage decisions across 161 specialty drugs to see how net prices, rebates, and market characteristics relate to coverage restrictions by large US commercial health plans.

Read at: tinyurl.com/2f3wm34t

Use of clinical outcome assessments in specialty drug coverage policies | Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy BACKGROUND: Clinical outcome assessments (COAs) are tools widely used in clinical trials to evaluate treatment efficacy by capturing patient experience. However, little is known about how COAs are use...

How often do health plans use clinical outcome assessments (#COA) to determine access to specialty drugs?

We reviewed 14,000 specialty drug coverage policies from large US commercial health plans to examine how COAs are used in coverage decisions.

Read at: tinyurl.com/yjae4pp7

How is the #HEOR function evolving inside pharmaceutical companies and what does that mean for evidence generation, decision-making, and careers in the field?

Read Part 2 of our report from Tufts-CEVR’s HEOR Leaders survey to find out: tinyurl.com/2skh73vu

How are pharma #HEOR teams informing industry responses to developments like the #IRA, state #PDABs, and rules for sharing economic evidence with payers?

Read CEVR’s report exploring the results of our new national survey of industry HEOR leaders to find out: tinyurl.com/ywjsntyy

Grad students: get a head start on summer by applying for our virtual CEA Registry fellowship. Learn more and apply today: cevr.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/news/2026-re...

#internships #fellowship #research #healthecon

@pattysynnott.bsky.social

⏰ One week left to submit nominations for Tufts-CEVR's 2025 CEA Paper of the Year Award. Don't miss the chance to have your work recognized!

Family spillover effects in cost-effectiveness analyses of vaccines We evaluated how frequently vaccine cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) include family spillover effects, costs or health impacts on family members who…

Read Dr. Lavelle’s vaccine spillover research here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Tufts-CEVR CEA Registry’s search function can save weeks of effort on lit reviews. Hear how Tara Lavelle used it for a study on vaccine spillover effects.

Access is free for #ISPOR members who are students or who are academic/gov’t researchers in LMICs.

More at cear.tuftsmedicalcenter.org

CEVR’s Tara Lavelle: Tufts-CEVR’s CEA Registry is a powerful, tool that can inform evidence-based health benefit design, new research proposals, and judgments on the value of health care interventions.

More at cear.tuftsmedicalcenter.org

Communication of Launch Prices by Drug Companies, 2022-2024 | AJMC Two-thirds of pharmaceutical companies did not proactively release the launch price of their medications from 2022 to 2024.

Conversations about drug pricing/value benefit from launch price transparency. New CEVR research finds that, from 2022-2024, pharma companies disclosed 1/3 of drug launch prices proactively and another 1/3 reactively, suggesting room for improvement.

More at tinyurl.com/dsfjft4k

U.S. health plan coverage of Neuromuscular Disease Therapies: An assessment of policy availability and restrictions - A Alex Levine, Julia A Rucker, Alex Cockerham, Joel Cartner, James D Chambers, 20... Background: Health plan policies managing neuromuscular disease (NMD) therapies may impose burdensome requirements on patients and providers. While prior resear...

Do US health plans clearly explain how patients can start and stay on neuromuscular disease (NMD) therapies? New CEVR research suggests that they often do not.

Read more about payer transparency/restrictiveness across several NMDs, including #DMD, #SMA, #ALS, and more.

tinyurl.com/mr2cxc52

What is the outlook for US payer coverage of specialty drugs in 2026? CEVR’s James Chambers will share insights from our SPEC database during a “can’t miss” webinar next week.

When: December 18, 12-12:30 pm ET

Register at tinyurl.com/56959f62

Do Medicare’s IPAY 2027 Negotiated Drug Prices Reflect Value For Money? | Health Affairs Forefront Examining whether negotiated prices align with value is one way of asking if CMS “got pricing right” and if the Medicare program is getting its money’s worth.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (#CMS) recently released the maximum fair prices (#MFP) for the 15 #IPAY 2027 drugs. How closely do they align with value-based prices?

New CEVR research found wide variation, which sends muddled signals to drugmakers about value.

tinyurl.com/3jsuybc7

The unintended consequences of the inflation reduction act on biosimilar market incentives and Medicare savings AbstractIntroduction. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) authorizes Medicare price negotiation but includes a “special rule” deferring negotiation for biolo

Excited to announce 1st paper in new Health Affairs Scholar Series #HAS @Health_Affairs by @TuftsCEVR. For almost 20 years, CEVR has been leader on issues pertaining to value, cost-effectiveness, and risk tradeoffs in health care decisions. Watch for more! academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

Some drugmakers are rolling out “pharm-to-table” programs to sell drugs directly to patients at lower costs, but how much will these programs to improve access and price transparency?

Read CEVR’s commentary on the promises and pitfalls of these programs.

tinyurl.com/mrv8dczp

Tufts-CEVR’s 8th Annual Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Paper of the Year Award The submission deadline is January 15th, 2026. Click next to proceed.

Did you publish a #CEA in 2025? Applications are now open for the 8th annual Tufts-CEVR CEA Paper of the Year Award.

Est. application time: <5 mins

Award: $500

Due: January 15th: forms.gle/hiPo3nYSE8rV...

#HEOR #healthecon #HTA

Only 25% of cost-effectiveness analyses published from 2013-23 (n=7,800) omit societal costs (productivity, caregiving, travel, etc.), despite consensus guidelines recommending their inclusion.

Read at tinyurl.com/3htu3zn9

The Inflation Reduction Act (#IRA) allows #Medicare to defer negotiation for drugs with expected biosimilar competition within 2 years of selection, but this provision may unintentionally reduce long-term savings according to new research from CEVR.

More at: tinyurl.com/nptjvxzb

Rapid Genome Sequencing Compared with a Gene Panel in Critically Ill Infants with a Suspected Genetic Disorder: An Economic Evaluation To compare 1-year healthcare costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for two diagnostic strategies in critically ill infants with suspected genetic disorders: 1) early rapid genome sequencing (w...

Rapid genome sequencing performed early in a hospitalization can save ~$160k for critically ill infants with suspected genetic conditions- but most US insurers do not cover it.

Read more about this new Tufts Medical Center research: tinyurl.com/yc7mmxs7

Come see CEVR's faculty at ISPOR Europe 2025 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Details of our speaking engagements can be found at tinyurl.com/4em5ak2t

#ISPOREurope

Join CEVR on Nov. 5 from 2:30-3:30 pm ET for a health policy seminar from Boshen Jiao, PhD, MPH. Dr. Jiao will discuss the inclusion of productivity, informal caregiving time, and future unrelated medical costs in economic evaluations.

More at: tinyurl.com/4ru3pmd8

CEAs of SMA treatments frequently omit the effects of bereavement on caregivers, potentially undervaluing these interventions. Our new survey of bereaved parents better quantifies their experience of grief to inform future CEAs.

Read more at: tinyurl.com/2mcs6taa

The death of a child with SMA is a life-changing experience for parents, impacting their outlook on life, health, relationships, employment. New qualitative research explores the impacts of grief and strategies that help bereaved parents manage the loss of their child.

Read: tinyurl.com/mw2s2ezw

Going to AMCP 2025? Come see presentations by @mollytoba.bsky.social, Daniel Enright, and Angela Lin of CEVR's SPEC Team!

#AMCPNexus