STAT Plus: Biogen will offer discounts to a health plan if patients say its multiple sclerosis drugs don’t work
In a twist on value-based contracting, a drug maker has agreed to offer a larger discount that a commercial health plan will receive for medicines – but only based on outcomes that patients report.
In this instance, the UPMC Health Plan will pay less for two Biogen (BIIB) drugs — Tecfidera and Avonex — if patients say the medicines failed to help them, based on their assessments using a validated clinical scale known as Patient Determined Disease Steps. If the medicines work, however, both the health plan and patients could eventually be expected to experience lower overall health care costs.
