PURPOSE: The purpose of this workshop is to explore challenges in addressing health inequity as an objective in value assessment (VA), and to demonstrate and discuss the applications of potential methods in the US context using real-world model examples.

DESCRIPTION: There is system-wide consensus and emphasis on the importance of tackling the widening health disparities in our society. Various promising modeling approaches, most notably the distributional cost-effectiveness analysis (DCEA), have been proposed to support more equitable resource allocation in health care. However, the extent to which these methods can be applied in the pluralistic, fragmented US healthcare system is unclear.

In this workshop, the speakers will first discuss concepts and measures of health equity, and key challenges in addressing equitable resource allocation using existing methods (~10 minutes). To tackle these challenges, ensuring data representations from the underserved subpopulations is the necessary first step. Using the IVI’s model focusing addressing major depressive disorder (IVI-MDD) as an example, researchers will share strategies on how to recruit individuals of color and lower socioeconomic status in a component patient preference survey (~10 minutes). Discussions on available modeling will include:

1. how to build a Medicaid perspective in a VA model (~10 minutes);
2. how to leverage US data to conduct DCEA through a case study on the impact of funding inpatient COVID-19 treatments on underlying health equality. (~10 minutes).

Insights from the workshop are applicable across all stakeholders: researchers will gain insight into available sources and methods for US equity assessment; innovators and patient groups can learn about how to encourage the traditionally underrepresented communities to participate in the data generation and collection process for health data; and payers and US HTA bodies can learn about data availability and suggested next steps for integration of equity assessment into decision-making.