HIRA ‘Will advance CDDC result disclosure within the year'

Will expand the scope of information

HIRA addresses criticism over its transparency… “Will add patient recommendations when forming the next committee.”

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service announced that it will pursue systemic advancement within the year so people can gain access to details such as the reasons for the evaluations made by the Cancer Disease Review Committee.

 

HIRA also revealed plans to review the scope, method, and timing of disclosure of the details of the meeting results, on how they will only be disclosed when it has a ingsingificant impact on the Ministry of Health and Welfare's reimbursement policy or reimbursement order.

 

In addition, the authorities announced that they will include experts recommended by consumer and patient groups as members in the next committee composition stage set for the end of the year.

 

On the 27th, HIRA responded so to the criticism raised by the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee at the NA audit.

 

Rep.

 

Jeoung-ae Han of the Democratic Party of Korea urged the committee to disclose the results of the CDDC meeting in more detail and prepare ways to better reflect patient opinion in the committee's decision-making process.

 

HIRA responded that CDDC, which reviews the standards and methods to apply reimbursement to anticancer drugs prescribed and administered to seriously ill patients, has been disclosing the deliberation results on its website immediately after its meeting since 2021 in response to the rising social interest.

 

However, the authorities also added that specific details are not being disclosed due to regulations that restrict their disclosure, including sensitive information such as the pharmaceutical company’s trade secrets or when follow-up procedures are in progress.

 

Instead, HIRA promised to advance the system within the year to broaden the disclosed details such as specific evaluation stages and reasons for evaluation of applicants to improve the predictability of CDDC's review results.

 

After advancing the system, HIRA will consult the MOHW to review ways to expand the disclosure of cancer information and improve it so that experts recommended by patient groups can participate in the committee.

 

Regarding the composition of the committee, 4 experts recommended by consumer and patient groups can be added out of the total quota of 45, but only 1 expert is currently participating in the committee due to the insufficient number of recommendations made from related organizations when composing the current committee in 2021.

 

So the improved system will seek to address this problem as well.

 

HIRA said, “We will review the scope, method, and timing of disclosure of the meeting details, but only for those whose reimbursement standards have not been set, and their disclosure is met with a high level of social interest and has relatively little impact on the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s reimbursement policy or order.

 

We will fill the quota of recommended experts by allowing consumer and patient groups to recommend cancer-related experts regardless of the relevant cancer type to fill the quota of recommended experts when forming the next committee.”