Vienna, Austria
“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule” — Charles Dickens
History
The Federation of Social Insurances (Dachverband der Sozialversicherungsträger; DVSV) is a corporation under public law and the umbrella organisation of all five Austrian statutory social insurance institutions (active in three insurance sectors: health, accident and pensions).
Mission
The DVSV is responsible for safeguarding the general and macroeconomic interests of the Austrian social insurance institutions. It coordinates and enforces inter-institutional administration, represents the interests of social insurance institutions in various committees, networks and other bodies and provides numerous other services for the social insurance institutions.
How the agency works
In terms of HTA, the DVSV is responsible for issuing the code of reimbursement (EKO), which is a positive list including all medicines in the outpatient health care sector, which are nationally reimbursed by the Social Insurance in Austria.
In order to be listed in the EKO, a pharmaceutical company has to submit an application to the DVSV. The DVSV then conducts a pharmacologic, a medical-therapeutic and an economic evaluation in comparison to available treatment alternatives.
In addition to these assessments, the DVSV negotiates prices and any potential criteria for use with the respective pharmaceutical company.
Based on the outcomes of the evaluations and the negotiations, an advisory board consisting of representatives from different stakeholders (independent science representatives of universities, the Social Security Institutions, the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, the Federal Labor Board, the Austrian Medical Association, the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, the Federal States and a patient advocate) issues a recommendation on reimbursement as well as on specific criteria for use.
The final reimbursement decision by the DVSV is based on the recommendation by the advisory board. Due to the transparency directive, a final decision has to be made within 180 days.
A list of recently completed or milestone HTA reports
All pharmaceuticals under assessment can be found here: https://www.sozialversicherung.at/cdscontent/?contentid=10007.904654&portal=svportal
Agency Information
Country: Austria
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 9
Current HTA budget (mil USD):
Permanent staff: 42
Consultants:
Ongoing TA projects:
Contact Information
Director: Jan Pazourek
Contact person: Anna Nachtnebel
Federation of Social Insurances (Dachverband der Sozialversicherungsträger)
Kundmanngasse 21, 1030
Vienna, Austria
Tel: +431711323826
Fax:
Internet: https://www.sozialversicherung.at/cdscontent/?contentid=10007.821628&portal=svportal
Email: Anna.nachtnebel@sozialversicherung.at