FasterCures Congratulates Marilyn Tavenner’s Confirmation as Medicare/Medicaid Chief

by Margaret Anderson, Executive Director, FasterCures

Photo courtesy of Yahoo News

FasterCures congratulates Marilyn Tavenner for her confirmation as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an $820 billion agency that oversees the bulk of federal healthcare spending and healthcare reform.

Tavenner is the first confirmed administrator for the agency in more than six years, backed by an overwhelming 91-7 vote in the Senate. Such demonstration of bipartisan support underscores the importance of having strong and sustained leadership of an agency that plays a vital role in determining the fate of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure.

CMS oversees Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance, and implementation of many of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act. Decisions made by CMS impact not only the way we reimburse for costs associated with healthcare delivery, in so many ways, these decisions also determine what therapies patients can access today, and what therapies might move down the path from the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside.

And that’s why at FasterCures, we’re particularly paying close attention to the role CMS and other payers could and should play in advancing innovation in research and development. We continue to work closely with all sectors of the medical research ecosystem to explore effective ways to engage payers into the R&D process whether it is through a discussion of what data sets are relevant to reimbursement decisions, or a broader conversation about the role that reimbursement will play on decisionmaking at biopharm companies as they decide therapeutic discovery pathways.

Tavenner has a long to-do list ahead and we commend her commitment to strengthening the agency to improve health outcomes for patients, make our health care delivery system more effective and efficient, and ensure the best possible therapies can be made available to the right patients at the exact time they need it.

We stand at the ready, Administrator Tavenner, to support you and CMS.

Diving deeper into healthcare costs and breakthroughs

By Shawn Sullivan, Program Associate, FasterCures

Over the past few weeks, Washington has been consumed by conversations about the federal budget. Two recent events we attended, a Center for American Progress discussion and a Congressional Neuroscience Caucus briefing, aimed to cut through the rhetoric and focus on specific aspects of health funding – the affordability of healthcare and the relationship between mental illness and violence.

The March 13 Center for American Progress discussion, “The High Price of Healthcare,” featured the journalist and author Steven Brill, who wrote the recent TIME cover article “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us.” The conversation covered the excessive number of healthcare services and exorbitant prices, as well as reforms to control healthcare spending. “[Brill’s article] has changed the entire conversation surrounding healthcare,” said panelist Giovanni Colella, CEO and co-founder of Castlight Health. “It takes the issue to where the real problem is. This is an industry where the entire incentive system is wrong. We don’t know what we are paying, what we are buying, or what the outcomes are relative to costs. That would never fly in any other industry. Imagine paying for a Ferrari and getting a Toyota.” While much of the debate about the Affordable Care Act has focused on who is responsible for paying for healthcare, Brill pointed out that there isn’t as much focus on the actual costs: “During the debate over Obamacare, the questions being asked were about who pays for healthcare, when the question should have been ‘why does it cost so much?’”

The March 18 Congressional Neuroscience Caucus briefing examined the critical topic of mental illness and violence, as well as the state of mental health services and programs in the United States and scientific breakthroughs on the horizon that can benefit the 60 million Americans who suffer from mental illness. “There are two parallel conversations going on right now,” said Thomas R. Insel, director, National Institute of Mental Health. “One is about taking a fresh look at policy dealing with gun violence due to the recent tragic events at Sandy Hook, and other places. The other, due to things that have happened in only the last few months, is about revolutions taking place in brain research. President Obama mentioned mapping the brain in his recent State of the Union Address. But nobody is bridging these two conversations. If we want to prevent more Sandy Hooks, we have to do more about brain research.” Elizabeth Childs, child and adolescent psychologist and former commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, emphasized the importance of funding mental health research in tough economic times: “I am well aware of the challenges you face here in Washington to balance our budget, but there are investments worth making. Underfunding of the National Institute of Mental Health does not move us in the right direction. The reality is that the lack of investment in mental health is far more costly in the long run, including the increased burden that untreated mental illness has on the nation’s education, public safety and corrections systems. And that is before we factor in the incalculable human cost to families and our society.”

These conversations about the unique aspects and critical impact of federal health funding are pivotal to our nation’s well-being and productivity. As these conversations continue, we must focus on the real-world impact of policy decisions on patients, families, and communities nationwide.

A Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century

By Samantha Mayberry, Program Assistant at FasterCures

Last month, a host of clinical trial and oncology experts at the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) “Implementing a National Cancer Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century” workshop discussed the great strides that have recently been made in the clinical trials space. The workshop, co-sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), examined how the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has implemented the recommendations put forth in IOM’s 2010 report “A National Cancer Clinical Trials System for the 21st Century” with the goal of both evaluating progress against these recommendations, and identifying any outstanding gaps.

A January 2012 ASCO report details much of the progress discussed at the workshop, including the development of a centralized patient registration system amd a clinical trials data management system, as well as advancement in gaining coverage for trials through the Affordable Care Act.  However, the issues that remain clearly demonstrate that the current system is still being built to accommodate science as it was, not as it will be.

Specific issues include the fact that many NCI-run trials are not currently equipped for the rapidly-advancing science available in cancer therapeutics, particularly precision medicine, and the need for a clinical trials system run and regulated on an international scale rather than national systems for individual countries.

The NCI cooperative group program promotes and supports clinical trials for cancer therapies by coordinating researchers, cancer centers, and physicians to identify crucial issues in cancer research and design trials to answer these issues. Their goal is to make clinical trials more coordinated and efficient.

More than 30 experts from across NCI, academia, major pharmaceutical companies, cancer research institutes and biotech participated in the workshop. In a presentation to the group, FasterCures Executive Director Margaret Anderson pointed to the many innovative solutions being applied by the venture philanthropy community -- nonprofit disease research organizations that are moving away from the more conventional public charity model and instead are adopting the tools and techniques of venture capital finance, and the strategies and tactics of high-technology business management. One prime example is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), which targets therapies in areas of high unmet medical need, specifically funding investigators who are performing research in those areas at all stages of clinical investigation.

 

Another trend prevalent among these organizations is the prominence of clinical trial matching tools and trial databases. Many provide opportunities for patients to register their data and/or run complete registries for trials within the disease they focus on, helping to alleviate some of the stress that academia and industry often face with patient enrollment. Finally, another unique ability of these organizations is the capacity to run clinical centers for research.

As NCI, industry, and academia seek out new models to help improve and accelerate the system, these venture philanthropies – many of whom are members of The Research Acceleration and Innovation Network (TRAIN) at FasterCures – provide a fertile nesting ground of ideas.

We look forward to seeing the official outcomes from the workshop and continuing to work with IOM and ASCO on this important issue.

Relevant Links:
• The webcast and presentations from the workshop can be found here.