Can Health Technology Assessment Control Spending and Reward Innovation?

Note: This is a past event, additional resources may be available below.

Date

Tue Jun 8, 2021
3:30pm – 4:45pm

Location


Virtual

The pressure to curb U.S. healthcare spending keeps growing, but fear about what that might entail – including rationing of treatments or price controls that could stifle innovation – stops action. Unlike other advanced nations, the United States does not have a coordinated process to evaluate the effectiveness and value of new devices, medicines, or procedures. Could an Institute of Health Technology Assessment facilitate more rational decisions on healthcare that reward both innovation and quality across the entire spectrum of care?

Join the Aspen Institute and the USC Schaeffer Center for a discussion with Gail Wilensky, Peter Neumann, and Darius Lakdawalla – lead authors of a recently released white paper that paves the way for a new approach to health technology assessment in the U.S. Joining the conversation will be Lee A. Fleisher, chief medical officer and director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS and Adrian Towse, director emeritus and senior research fellow at the UK’s Office of Health Economics. The conversations will be moderated by STAT Washington Correspondent Rachel Cohrs.

The pressure to curb U.S. healthcare spending keeps growing, but fear about what that might entail – including rationing of treatments or price controls that could stifle innovation – stops action. Unlike other advanced nations, the United States does not have a coordinated process to evaluate the effectiveness and value of new devices, medicines, or procedures. Could an Institute of Health Technology Assessment facilitate more rational decisions on healthcare that reward both innovation and quality across the entire spectrum of care?

Join the Aspen Institute and the USC Schaeffer Center for a discussion with Gail Wilensky, Peter Neumann, and Darius Lakdawalla – lead authors of a recently released white paper that paves the way for a new approach to health technology assessment in the U.S. Joining the conversation will be Lee A. Fleisher, chief medical officer and director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS and Adrian Towse, director emeritus and senior research fellow at the UK’s Office of Health Economics. The conversations will be moderated by STAT Washington Correspondent Rachel Cohrs.

Policy 101

Join the Aspen Policy Academy to learn the basics of the policy process in this 1-hour webinar.

Feeling the Heat: Workplace Safety in a Warming World

For the benefit of workers, businesses, and our society, we need to build workplace heat safety into our culture, policies, and practices if we are to adapt to our warming planet. Join the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on Wednesday, July 30, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, on Zoom to learn about how the warming climate is affecting workers, and what policymakers, businesses, and labor are doing to keep workers safe. This event is part of EOP’s Opportunity in America conversation series.

How to Tell Governments What You Think

Learn how to tell government actors what you think about their ideas in this 1-hour webinar.

Flash Seminar: Rooting Our Leadership in Humanity – August 2025

Get a glimpse into what the Aspen method of text-based dialogue can do to strengthen the connection between your leadership and your values

Writing a Public Comment

Learn a framework for writing effective public comments in this 1-hour webinar.

Writing an Op-Ed

Learn how to draft an op-ed to advance a broader goal of policy change in this 1-hour webinar.

Communicating for Policy

Learn the basics of communicating your ideas for policy impact to stakeholders both in and outside of government in this 1-hour webinar.

Scoping a Policy Problem

Join the Aspen Policy Academy to learn the basics of defining a policy problem in this 1-hour webinar.

Rising Civic AI Leaders

A program providing recent tech-to-government civic AI leaders with the knowledge, tools, and support to navigate government processes.

Shared Futures: The AI Forum

Shared Futures: The AI Forum brings together cultural architects to explore how AI is reshaping the way we live, create, and connect.