PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 616 - 13 Nov 2010

US report shows you don’t alwaysget what you pay for . . .

The US National Committee of Quality Assurance(NCQA) has released this year’s State of Health CareQuality report, which shows that health plans that spendthe most on care don’t always deliver the best quality.

The annual report examined quality data from over1000 health plans that collectively cover 118 millionAmericans. One of the reports new findings came from aRelative Resource Use (RRU) analysis, which showedthat many plans that deliver below-average quality useabove-average levels of resources. The NCQAconcludes that ‘the saying "you get what you pay for"does not apply to health care’.

. . . & autism fears may be cause of drop inchild vax rates

The other major finding was that, among commercialhealth plans, childhood vaccination rates declined 4% in2009. The NCQA suspects that this may be due toparents refusing vaccines for their children because ofthe unproven, yet increasingly popular, notion thatvaccines cause autism. Celebrity activists are blamed foradvocating of this view. The NCQA president, MargaretE. O’Kane, comments that "The drop in childhoodvaccinations is disturbing because parents are rejectingvaluable treatment based on misinformation."Interestingly, vaccination rates among children coveredby Medicaid continue to steadily improve.NCQA. NCQA Report: Quality, Spending Not Linked; Autism Fears Suspected asChildren’s Vaccinations Decrease in Private Plans. Media Release : 14 Oct 2010.Available from: URL: http://ww.ncqa.org 809117374

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PharmacoEconomics & Outcomes News 13 Nov 2010 No. 6161173-5503/10/0616-0001/$14.95 © 2010 Adis Data Information BV. All rights reserved