By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    improving patient experience
    6 Ways to Improve Patient Satisfaction Within Hospitals
    December 1, 2021
    degree for healthcare job
    What Are The Health Benefits Of Having A Degree?
    March 9, 2022
    custom software development is changing healthcare
    Digital Customer Journey Mapping and its Importance for Healthcare
    July 21, 2022
    Latest News
    Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
    May 16, 2025
    Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
    May 16, 2025
    Choosing the Right Supplement Manufacturer for Your Brand
    May 1, 2025
    Engineering Temporary Hospitals for Extreme Weather
    April 24, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Can Thinking Younger Make You Live Longer?
    April 20, 2011
    Image
    Obesity’s Outlook Unchanged
    June 13, 2011
    When It’s An Emergency Elderly Not Treated As Well in Hospitals
    July 16, 2011
    Latest News
    Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
    May 18, 2025
    The Critical Role of Healthcare in Personal Injury Recovery: A Comprehensive Guide for Victims
    May 14, 2025
    The Backbone of Successful Trials: Clinical Data Management
    April 28, 2025
    Advancing Your Healthcare Career through Education and Specialization
    April 16, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Defending the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY)
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Defending the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY)
BusinessPolicy & Law

Defending the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY)

DavidEWilliams
Last updated: May 6, 2011 5:51 pm
DavidEWilliams
Share
4 Min Read
SHARE

Pity the QALY. The health economist’s admittedly imperfect measure has become a whipping boy of those who pretend the US can sustain policies that ignore aggregate spending levels in health care. Peter J. Neumann, ScD defends the QALY in the latest issue of JAMA. (Note: I serve on the Executive Advisory Board of Neumann’s Center for the Evaluation of Value & Risk in Health.)

Pity the QALY. The health economist’s admittedly imperfect measure has become a whipping boy of those who pretend the US can sustain policies that ignore aggregate spending levels in health care. Peter J. Neumann, ScD defends the QALY in the latest issue of JAMA. (Note: I serve on the Executive Advisory Board of Neumann’s Center for the Evaluation of Value & Risk in Health.)

The Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) is a way to measure health status over time, where perfect health (as measured by patient preferences) is defined as 1.0 and death 0.0. All else being equal a higher QALY is better than a lower one. The QALY is an improvement over simply measuring life expectancy. For example, it seems obvious that a person would prefer to live 5 years in perfect health than 5 years in a coma. QALYs reflect that preference. A nice feature of QALYs is they can be used across disease areas and types of treatment.

QALYs are imperfect methodologically. But the limitations are fairly modest (e.g., preference ratings are difficult to ascertain, the order in which health states are experienced is not reflected) and don’t explain the antipathy toward the very notion of measuring and publishing QALYs. There are many other kinds of imperfect measurements we rely on routinely, such as the consumer price index or even blood pressure, however you don’t hear a lot of attacks on those tools because few oppose measuring inflation or hypertension.

More Read

Questions for Physicians to Ask & Not Ask During Interviews
Questions for Physicians to Ask & Avoid During Interviews
The Most Active VCs in Healthcare Since 2012
When Can Genetic Carrier Screening Be Performed?
Dilemmas in Healthcare’s Information Age: A Bioethicist’s Take on EMRs, DNA Sequencing
Kratom – a Solution for Opioid Addiction?

But the long knives are out for the QALY because of the widespread aversion to considering value and resource allocation in health care financing. QALYs themselves don’t incorporate any cost information. However cost per QALY calculations are used to influence coverage decisions, especially in other countries such as the UK. Sometimes a specific cost per QALY threshold is set for whether a treatment will be covered at all, and this is an understandable source of controversy.

The QALY is under attack due to its association with resource allocation decisions and rationing, but is likely to survive, even if explicit cost per QALY coverage decisions go by the wayside. As Neumman writes:

Shunning the QALY would not alter the unsustainability of the health spending trajectory or the need to confront the cross-disease and cross-sector tradeoffs inherent in health choices, but would merely mask them… Unavoidably, ways are needed to measure the value of health care delivered, especially to inform market-based approaches. And the QALY, perhaps a bit bruised by recent events, will be waiting in the wings.

 


TAGGED:health care business. health care policy
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Clinical Expertise
Building Smarter Care Teams: Aligning Roles, Structure, and Clinical Expertise
Health care
May 18, 2025
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
Health
May 15, 2025
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Learn how to Renew your Medical Card in West Virginia
Health
May 15, 2025
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction heart treatment
Dr. Klaus Rentrop Shares Acute Myocardial Infarction
Cardiology
May 13, 2025

You Might also Like

Would You Trade Places with Your Physician?

January 28, 2014
BusinessNewsPolicy & LawPublic Health

Physicians Surveyed Gloomy About Healthcare Reform

March 13, 2012
Digital Marketing, medical practice
Business

Elements of a Good Digital Marketing Plan for Your Medical Practice

December 19, 2014

Nurses Demonstrate on Wall Street

June 24, 2011
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?