Payers are "crucial allies" in improving data gathered from clinical trials, researchers at the FDA and Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania wrote in a special communication published in JAMA July 1.
Closer collaboration between payers and researchers could result in better coverage policies and cost savings for payers and in more data for researchers, according to the FDA.
"Evidence generation serves payers' most important mission — to improve their beneficiaries' health," the researchers wrote. "Although payers mainly accomplish this task through coverage of health care services and medical products, payers have a responsibility to participate in generating evidence that can help ensure the right patient gets the right treatment at the right time."
The FDA researchers proposed several ways payers could better support clinical trials:
- Reducing administrative and financial barriers for members participating in clinical trials.
- Funding research that could result in cost savings for insurers.
- Engaging with medical devicemakers on evidence standards for coverage decisions.
- Making claims data more easily accessible for researchers.
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