HIRA’s CDDC seeks to revise current regulations

Will remove the ‘random member selection for meetings’ regulation and add Korean Association for Lung Cancer to the expert member recommendation list

Meeting members will consist of no more than 25 members including 9 clinical experts

Members for each meeting will be based on specialty area and agenda

The current regulation that randomly selects members for each Cancer Disease Deliberation Meeting will be deleted.

 

The measure was prepared to maintain consistency in the committee’s deliberations.

 

In addition, the Korean Association for Lung Cancer will be added as a recommended organization given that lung cancer drugs are often on the agenda.

 

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service issued a notice of the proposed amendments to the Operating Regulations for the Severe Disease Review Committee (Cancer Disease Review Committee, CDDC) on the 13th of this month.

 

The amendments were made for the following reasons: ▲ to specify the legal grounds for establishing the committee in detail ▲ to update the committee's composition practice according to the occurrence of organizations with a low number of recommendations ▲ to change the method of selecting attendees due to the continuous occurrence of agendas for specific cancer types (to maintain consistency in deliberations by including members with continuum when organizing meetings) ▲ to amend the lack of the term of office clause for HIRA members ▲ and to strengthen expertise by adding organizations related to frequent agendas to the recommended organizations.

 

In particular, the current random selection regulation will be removed to maintain the expertise and consistency of the committee members during meetings.

 

Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the current regulations stipulates, "The committee shall consist of no more than 25 members randomly selected for each meeting.” However, since a variety of anticancer drugs are reviewed by the Cancer Disease Deliberation Committee, the committee decided to delete the reregulate as it may be difficult to establish consistent reimbursement standards while replacing members every time.

 

A HIRA official said, “We are already flexibly adjusting the composition of the committee members to reflect the characteristics of the drugs, but decided to remove the regulation to maintain expertise and consistency in our deliberations.” Accordingly, the regulation will be changed to "consist of no more than 25 members, including 9 clinical experts, but may consider Appendix 2 with reference to the specialty and contents of each meeting’s agenda.

 

Appendix 2 refers to the experts recommended by expert societies, and the Korean Lung Cancer Society has been added in the recent amendment.

 

This is a reflection of the recent increase in the number of lung cancer treatments presented on the agenda.

 

The composition of the committee will also be changed.

 

The number of clinical experts recommended by the director will increase from 2 to 3, while the number of experts recommended by health-related organizations will decrease from 3 to 2.

 

In addition, the number of reviewers for solid cancer and hematologic cancer drugs will be changed from 2 reviewers each to 2 reviewers.

 

In addition, the wording of Article 14 regarding the disclosure of review results will be revised.

 

Although the current regulation states that “the committee shall not disclose the results of deliberations,” when the disclosed information is deemed to negatively affect the public's right to receive reimbursement, the reimbursement policy of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, or when to harm the reimbursement order, the revised regulation leaves open the possibility of disclosure, by changing the phrase to “may not disclose the results of deliberations.” The opinion inquiry period for the proposed amendment will end on the 19th.

 

Meanwhile, the 10th Cancer Disease Review Committee recently began its two-year term.

 

The 10th committee consists of 40 members and is chaired by Professor Ho-Young Lim of the Samsung Medical Center.