New fee coming for medical effectiveness research

WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting in 2012, the government will charge a new fee to your health-insurance plan for research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best.

But what will Americans do with the answers?

The goal of the research, part of a little-known provision of President Barack Obama's health-care law, is to answer basic questions such as whether that new prescription drug advertised on TV really works better than an old generic costing much less.

But in the politically charged environment surrounding health care, the idea of medical effectiveness research is eyed with suspicion. The insurance fee could be branded a tax and drawn into the vortex of election-year politics.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute — a quasi-governmental agency created by Congress to carry out the research — has yet to commission a single head-to-head comparison, although its director is anxious to begin.