New collaborative tackles issues of value-based contracting.
Curt Medeiros: The health care landscape is changing dramatically. Payers are continuously working to drive improvements in health outcomes, as well as lower costs.
Susan Shiff: Moving to value-based models for pharmaceutical companies allows us to look at the real-world outcomes of patients, as it relates to our medicines and vaccines.
Curt: Value-based contracts provide a new opportunity to align payment with the actual performance of that drug for each and every individual person.
Susan: It allows us to price our products based on the innovation that we bring to society.
Curt: It takes a ton of resources, data and time to analyze whether a health plan is getting the benefit for the target population.
Susan: We’re working to find win-win solutions with our collaborative partner, Optum.
Susan: In doing so, we’ve created a Learning Lab to explore value-based and pay-for-performance contracts.
Curt: The primary purpose of the Learning Lab is to study data, analytics, market conditions; to understand the potential performance of value-based contracts in different payer settings.
Susan: We used Optum’s clinical, claims and integrated data to measure real-world outcomes.
Susan: These data assets, along with Merck’s understanding of the marketplace and how patients use medications, allowed us to really understand value-based contracts and how we can use them in the marketplace.
Curt: One insight we’ve discovered in the partnership is that these should be more than just financial agreements. They should really be a bridge to bring together pharmaceutical manufacturers and payers, working towards one common goal: improved patient outcomes at sustainable affordability.
Susan: What excited me the most about the Learning Lab was having a safe environment, or a sandbox, to explore new ideas, new models, new designs; and opened up a dialogue that we had never had before.
Curt: Merck and Optum came together, combining their unique capabilities.
Susan: To think about the complexity of the data that would be necessary in value-based contracts, and to both work toward one goal: improving the lives of patients.
Curt: The partnership between Merck and Optum has achieved more than we could imagine.
Susan: To bring medicines to patients that really need them, and to truly invent for life.
Optum® and Merck have partnered in an innovative Learning Laboratory to study the impacts of various types of value-based contracts in different therapeutic areas. Types of data, analytical approaches, incentives and market conditions are explored to determine the right combination for driving successful value-based contracts. The goal is to identify opportunities to align value and payment to improve patient outcomes, expand access to new therapies and ensure responsible health care spending.