Center for American Progress

: High-Priced Drugs and Medical Devices
Past Event


High-Priced Drugs and Medical Devices

Do They Provide Added Benefit?



Drug and medical device manufacturers often profit enormously from marketing new, high-priced products that are marginally or no better than existing products. In our current health care system, physicians, payers, and patients must often choose between treatment A and treatment B without knowing which treatment works best or whether the higher-priced treatment provides added benefit.

Given our nation’s high level of health care expenditures, the status quo is unsustainable. This event features Dr. Joe Selby, executive director of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was created by the Affordable Care Act to compare the effectiveness of treatment options. Three physicians who have expertise in the comparative effectiveness of drugs and medical devices will also provide their insights. With PCORI’s budget more than doubling in 2014, the Center for American Progress will also release a report evaluating its progress with a set of recommendations for the coming years.

Please join the Center for American Progress for this discussion.

The Center for American Progress thanks the Peter G. Peterson Foundation for its support of our Health Policy programs. The views and opinions expressed in this event are those of the Center for American Progress and the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. The Center for American Progress produces independent research and policy ideas driven by solutions that we believe will create a more equitable and just world.

Introductory remarks:
Topher Spiro, Vice President for Health Policy, Center for American Progress

Featured speaker:
Joe Selby, M.D., M.P.H., Executive Director, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Panelists:
Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D. Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Vice Provost, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Bach, M.D., Attending Physician, Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center
Sergio Viroslav, M.D., Orthopedic Surgeon, Baptist Medical Center

Moderated by:
Maura Calsyn, Associate Director of Health Policy, Center for American Progress