US commercial payers vary in how they cover cell and gene therapies, according to a new study of 541 coverage policies by Tufts-CEVR’s SPEC team. 52% of policies had restrictions beyond FDA label, often limiting access to patient subgroups or requiring step therapy. Read at: tinyurl.com/5dwhv726

CEAs often undervalue vaccines by excluding family spillover effects. New research from CEVR and Merck explores the impact of omissions. Half of studied CEAs omitted spillover effects. Including them improved cost-eff. by avg. of ~20%; 10% of results became cost-saving. Read: tinyurl.com/y8p6jtwm

Older adults with dementia face substantial OOP costs. New CEVR research explores financial risks to patients/families: 21% of individuals w/ severe dementia face catastrophic costs; 12% fall below poverty threshold due to costs. Read at: tinyurl.com/3pfbt7fp @pattysynnott.bsky.social

Join CEVR on Sept. 30 from 2-3 pm ET for a health policy seminar from Carl Asche, PhD, MSc. Dr. Asche will discuss new research to standardize definitions and outcomes reporting for patient-facing digital health interventions (PICOTS-ComTeC and CHEERS-DHI) More at: tinyurl.com/ywn7abjp

Join CEVR on Sept. 30 from 2-3 pm ET for a health policy seminar from Carl Asche, PhD, MSc. Dr. Asche will discuss his work to define patient-facing digital health interventions and standardize reporting practices (PICOTS-ComTeC and CHEERS-DHI) More at: tinyurl.com/ywn7abjp

How can we make #valueassessment more patient-centric? New consensus recs from CEVR’s Tara Lavelle & colleagues include: • Engage patients throughout • Count all costs to patients & caregivers • Share results in plain language Read all 28 recommendations here: tinyurl.com/m9wxf6wj

New in Health Affairs: CMS should adopt a formal #HTA approach for #IRA drug price negotiations. Benefits: transparency, broader evidence, more patients/stakeholder input, more acceptance of negotiations, etc. More from @dano-hta.bsky.social et al: tinyurl.com/2s36yjta @commonwealthfund.org

What explains the wide range of specialty drug rebates? New research from @mollytoba.bsky.social et al finds cancer/orphan drugs have the lowest rebates, and biosimilars/originators the highest. Read more in Health Affairs Scholar at: tinyurl.com/y4rc468d @argenx.com #PBM #Rebates #DrugPrices

CEVR is thrilled to welcome David Strutton, PhD, as a Senior Fellow! Dr. Strutton brings 30+ years of global leadership in health policy, biopharma, and HTA. His expertise in real-world evidence and access strategy will be a tremendous asset. Read more at: tinyurl.com/3bz9te3p

Meet Hao-Hsin (Taylor) Huang, MS, today’s featured #CEARegistry Summer Fellow. Taylor is pursuing her PhD in Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Our thanks to the @moorefound.bsky.social for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!

Great application of our CEA Registry at the #Vanderbilt Center for Health Economic Modeling: 11 international fellows from #LMICs used the Registry to conduct CEAs of public health interventions. Read more at: tinyurl.com/88varaue @peterneumann11.bsky.social #ISPOR

New in JCER: CEVR’s Meng Li and @peterneumann11.bsky.social call for more value assessment of health services/procedures. These interventions are ~70% of health care spending but are often implemented without robust evidence and, unlike drugs, can cost more over time. Read: tinyurl.com/ycxrppby

CEVR Summer Fellow Spotlight: we’re thrilled to have Rosemond Amamoo, MD, MPH as a #CEARegistry Summer Fellow! Rosemond is pursuing her PhD in Health and Pharmaceutical Outcomes at @uarizona.bsky.social. Our thanks to the @moorefound.bsky.social for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!

Two weeks left to apply: Earn your #HEOR Certificate online from @tufts.edu with globally-recognized faculty like @peterneumann11.bsky.social, @dano-hta.bsky.social, James Chambers, and more from CEVR. Apply today! Deadline is Aug. 1. tinyurl.com/pr6drkhf #RWE #pharma

Today’s #CEARegistry Summer Fellow is Pooja Gokhale, PharmD. Pooja is pursuing her PhD in Pharmaceutical Health Services, Outcomes, and Policy at @universityofga.bsky.social. Our thanks to @moorefound.bsky.social for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!‬‬

Larry Mose, MSc is today’s #CEARegistry Summer fellow. Larry earned his MSc from @york.ac.uk and hopes to work in the field of #HEOR. Our thanks to the @moorefound.bsky.social ‬for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!‬‬

1/ How closely do health plans’ drug #utilizationmanagement (UM) policies align with #clinicalguidelines? CEVR and NPC examined policies for 389 drug-indication pairs from 18 commercial insurers. Here’s a thread on what we found:

Strategic evidence planning in the IRA: Insights from Year 1 drug price negotiations | becarispublishing.com/digital-cont...

Traditional #valueassessment lacks methods to evaluate #oncology combination txs, posing challenges for drugmakers, HTA bodies, and payers. In a new commentary in Frontiers in Pharmacology, CEVR’s Dan Ollendorf et al explore available frameworks and chart a path forward: tinyurl.com/kh84ueb4

Meet Fengdi Zhang, MPH, today's featured #CEARegistry Summer Fellow. Fengdi is pursuing her PhD in Pharmaceutical Health Services Research at @univofmaryland.bsky.social Our thanks to the @moorefound.bsky.social for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!

There are new drugs for #Alzheimer’s but utility data for AD patients and caregivers are limited/outdated. A new survey from CEVR’s Lin et al and UsAgainstAlzheimer's provides fresh data, stratifies utilities by care setting, etc. Read in J Alzheimer’s Dis: tinyurl.com/mu5rt9yd #HEOR

Meet Hanxuan (Astrid) Yu, MEd, today’s #CEARegistry summer fellow. Astrid is working toward her PhD at @hsph.harvard.edu Our thanks to @moorefound.bsky.social for funding the CEA Registry Fellowship program!‬

CEVR is thrilled to introduce the 2025 cohort of the Tufts-CEVR CEA Registry Summer Fellowship Program, which is supported by the @moorefound.bsky.social. Stay tuned over the next two months for featured posts about each fellow! More details at: cevr.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/news/2025-ce...

Join our team! CEVR is #hiring a research project coordinator: cevr.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/news/researc...

Join CEVR on June 17 from 2-3 ET for a health policy seminar from Nathaniel Hendrix, PhD, PharmD. Dr. Hendrix will discuss trends in and effects of pharmaceutical industry payments to primary care physicians. More details at: tinyurl.com/3e2nesrc

New in Value in Health: three former CEA Registry Summer Fellows (Xujun Gu, Hanwen Zhang, and Divya Patil) and U of Maryland's Julia Slejko used the CEA Registry to explore the utility of AI-assisted data extraction. Read at tinyurl.com/37mh5n6m

In recognition of her expertise in health economics, CEVR Senior Fellow Melanie Whittington, PhD, has been appointed to the Congressional Budget Office (#CBO) 2025 Panel of Health Advisors. Congratulations Melanie! Read the CBO announcement at tinyurl.com/ms7j82c6

This is great news for ISPOR student and LMIC members. The CEVR registry is an invaluable tool - both for researchers trying to find high quality cost-effectiveness analyses within a specific clinical area and for those looking a bigger trends in the economic evaluation literature. #HEOR #EconSky

ISPOR and CEVR are partnering to offer free premium access to the CEA Registry for students + academic/government researchers in LMICs. Unlock data from 14,000+ cost-effectiveness studies, advanced tools, and more. More at: tinyurl.com/5y3vpsz3 #HEOR #GlobalHealth #ISPOR

With @tuftscevr.bsky.social colleagues #ISPORAnnual in Montreal.

Gearing up for a busy #ISPORAnnual for the @tuftscevr.bsky.social SPEC team! Come say hello, learn about our research and the SPEC database. #heor #marketaccess #healthpolicy

Join CEVR on May 6 from 4-5 ET for a health policy seminar from Dr. Noemi Kreif. Dr. Kreif will discuss how machine learning can help evaluate treatment effectiveness and personalize treatment recommendations. More details at: tinyurl.com/3z4cwyn8 #machinelearning

Come see CEVR's faculty and researchers share their work and insights at #ISPOR2025 in Montreal! A list of our panels, workshops, poster presentations, and other activities can be found at tinyurl.com/mwy8yv3a #ISPOR #HEOR #HealthPolicy

Join CEVR’s James Chambers at the World Orphan Drug Conference USA tomorrow, April 22, in Boston. James will present his research on the health benefits, costs, and cost-effectiveness of ultraorphan drugs. More at: tinyurl.com/yer2ssfc #WorldOrphanUSA #HEOR

Thanks to all my wonderful Tufts-CEVR colleagues for putting on another great annual meeting! Proud to work with you! @dano-hta.bsky.social @brianreid.bsky.social @tuftscevr.bsky.social @mollytoba.bsky.social

In 2024, 60+ studies used the CEA Registry to push the boundaries of health economics. From global CEAs to deriving rare disease utilities, check out highlights in CEVR's new blog post: tinyurl.com/mpanf3u5 #HEOR #CEA

CEVR is thrilled to announce the winners of our 7th Annual Cost-Effectiveness Paper of the Year Award. Best CEA — Anita Brogan et al. Cost-effectiveness of Cabotegravir Long-Acting for HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis in the United States (tinyurl.com/mw5ff646) #CEA #HEOR

Join CEVR on April 22 from 2-3 ET for a health policy seminar led by Dr. Xin Hu. Dr. Hu will discuss the state of palliative care for advanced cancers and a framework for value assessment to support high-value palliative care. More details at: tinyurl.com/yc23vwrd #palliativecare #valueassessment

Cancer drugs' average US net launch prices doubled from $100K to $200K between 2008 and 2022, with no clear link to clinical efficacy, raising questions about whether these prices reflect value. Read new research co-authored by CEVR’s Katherine Clifford and James Chambers: tinyurl.com/4my6h8zs

This right question about prevention: not whether it saves money, but whether it is worth the cost. tinyurl.com/3ezrrvm4 @tuftscevr.bsky.social #health #prevention

US commercial and Medicare Advantage health plan coverage of anti-VEGF tx is frequently tighter than the FDA label. Plans require step therapy in up to 75% of policies; restrictions more frequent for originator drugs vs. biosimilars. New from CEVR / Impact Education in JMCP: tinyurl.com/ydd783e4

"As the aging population grows and novel diagnostic and treatment options emerge, understanding the complex economic implications of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias becomes increasingly critical” Read Value In Health's #ADRD themed section w/ guest-editor Paige Lin: tinyurl.com/3awz5bfw

@tuftscevr.bsky.social visiting PhD student Jan-Willem Versteeg has developed a survey on how ICER communicates uncertainty in its findings. Please share your opinion, using the link below or the QR code. Participation is completely anonymous! tinyurl.com/57hkmkum

PhD student Jan-Willem Versteeg has fielded a survey to learn more about how @icer-review.bsky.social communicates uncertainty in its analyses. To learn more and participate visit this link: tinyurl.com/yc539c6v. Open for the next 3 weeks!

Join CEVR on March 26 for a health policy seminar from @medsandmigration.bsky.social, who will discuss how the #InflationReductionAct will affect out of pocket costs for people with cancer. Details and Zoom link at: tinyurl.com/fdze5up5 #IRA #Cancer #financialtoxicity #PartD

The death of the #QALY has been greatly exaggerated. Read @peterneumann11.bsky.social's new blog showing that more QALY-based analyses are being published than ever, despite controversy. Analysis used CEVR's #CEARegistry cevr.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/news/the-dea... #HEOR #CEA

Our new Forefront article explores how drug #valueassessments generally don't consider complexity of health care systems + can misinform price negotiations, leading to restricted access. Hirsch, Phares, and @peterneumann11.bsky.social discuss how to improve + barriers: tinyurl.com/2rpurzzj

The National Eczema Association awarded a Spotlight Research Grant to our #SPEC team to analyze US payer coverage policies for #atopicdermatitis tx. We will study coverage changes due to new evidence, tx, clinical guidelines; how disparities can cause health inequities. tinyurl.com/33sbsdre

How often do US commercial health plans cite health technology assessments (HTA) in specialty drug coverage policies? CEVR researchers used the #SPEC database to find that use of #HTA varied widely across plans. Read more: www.jmcp.org/doi/10.18553...

How will Trump admin reform Medicare’s #CED program? Return to the #MCIT paradigm, default enrollment in #Medicare Advantage, etc? In HA Forefront: Tunis, Hatfield, Patel, & @peterneumann11.bsky.social argue against removing CED + for efficient data collection. Read: tinyurl.com/yuj67caf