Key facts
In 2019, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) conducted an audit on the procedural efficiency of health technology assessments and submitted five recommendations to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), one of which was a top priority. All of them were accepted. The SFAO has now carried out a follow-up audit on the implementation of these five recommendations.
A health technology assessment (HTA) is an internationally recognised tool used to systematically evaluate medicinal products and goods/services in the healthcare sector in terms of their efficacy, appropriateness and cost-effectiveness. HTA reports are considered an important basis for making evidence-based decisions on appropriate remuneration in government-funded health insurance systems. In Switzerland, the FOPH outsources such evaluations to national and international HTA suppliers. The relevant extra-parliamentary commissions, i.e. the Federal Medicines Commission, the Federal Medical Services Commission and the Federal Commission for Analyses, Aids and Devices, use these as the basis for the health policy recommendations they present to the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FHA), which ultimately make a binding decision. The decision made by the FOPH or the FDHA means either that a new item or service will not be approved for reimbursement by compulsory health insurance or else that the reimbursement of an existing item or service will be removed from, limited or maintained under compulsory health insurance.