The Alliance submitted comments to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) concerning its Draft Comparative Effectiveness Review, “Care Interventions for People With Dementia (PWD) and Their Caregivers.” The review was conducted at the request of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), in collaboration with the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to “understand the evidence base for effective care interventions, and to assess the potential for broad dissemination and implementation of that evidence.” The review concludes that “very little evidence supports widespread dissemination of any general care approaches for PWD. This review demonstrates the need for larger, longer-term, and more rigorous studies of interventions,” but provides no concrete recommendations for how to address research gaps in this area of study to realize the needed evidence to offer future coverage and reimbursement for dementia-related care interventions.
The Alliance’s comment includes the following recommendations to AHRQ as it updates the draft:
- To clearly define the evidentiary standard needed for “broad dissemination and implementation”
- To outline the basic components of any evidence-based care intervention for people with dementia (PWD)
- To provide a list of specific evidence gaps that need to be filled for a care intervention for PWD to meet the evidence criteria for broad dissemination and implementation; and
- To provide a list of specific evidence gaps that need to be filled for a care intervention for PWD to qualify for coverage and reimbursement by private and public payers, including Medicare.
