Federal health agencies, seeking to hand out stimulus funds to research the effectiveness of various medical treatments, said they will include projects that look in part at the cost of drugs and other treatments.
The approach — which was unveiled in a report to Congress this week by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health, both agencies under the Department of Health and Human Services — could provide more fodder to conservatives worried that the government might use the results of such studies to limit health care to consumers.
Administration officials have said they want to use stimulus funds to help doctors and patients choose more-effective treatments and ultimately, help rein in rising health-care costs. Democrats are considering including measures that would support such research as part of health-care legislation making its way through Congress.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which has $300 million to spend on comparative research, mostly in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, said it would increase funding to projects that focus on arthritis, cancer and 12 other conditions that are often costly to treat. Read More EMR Stimulus Package