Health Technology Clinical Committee

Overview

The Washington State Health Technology Clinical Committee (HTCC or Committee) was established by law in 2006 to include eleven members appointed by the HCA director, in consultation with participating state agencies. See RCW 70.14.090. In addition to the law and administrative rules, the Committee maintains bylaws for the orderly resolution of its purposes.

Purpose

The HTCC was established to make coverage determinations for selected health technologies based on the available scientific evidence. The determinations of the HTCC are followed by state purchased health care programs including Medicaid, Uniform Medical Plan and the Department of Labor and Industries. The HTCC uses systematic health technology assessment reports on the strength of the evidence and considers other information including state utilization and public comment when making coverage decisions.

Committee selection

HCA seeks a committee with a diversity of knowledgeable individuals willing to actively participate and make decisions based on the evidence and the best interest of the public. Key qualities for the committee include:

• Active practitioners.
• Diverse membership in geographic location, gender, and ethnic and racial background.
• Knowledge of and experience with evidence-based medicine including experience, training, or education focused on fields relevant to evidence based medicine.

HTCC membership includes a range of practitioner types and specialties that use health technologies (medical and surgical devices and procedures, medical equipment, and diagnostic tests). The categories below include some examples, and depending on the services performed, practitioners may fit in more than one category:

• Diagnostic Services: such as radiology, pathology, internal medicine, and/or emergency medicine.
• Primary Care Services: such as family practice, internal medicine, nurse practitioner, pediatrics, and/or obstetrics/gynecology.
• Surgical Services: such as orthopedics, neurosurgery, cardiology, anesthesiology, obstetrics/gynecology, podiatry, and/or dentistry.
• Rehabilitative Services: such as rehabilitation medicine, chiropractic, prosthetics and/or orthotics, physical, occupational or rehabilitative therapy.
• Additional Health Services: such as mental health, dental, chiropractic, complementary and alternative medicine (e.g., acupuncture, naturopathy), or massage therapy.

Selection criteria

The following criteria is evaluated during member selection:

• Length and type of clinical experience.
• Clinical experience relevance to health technology.
• Experience on committees (internal, organizational, or external) and/or applying clinical knowledge to policy or other decision making process.
• Knowledge of and experience with evidence-based medicine, including experience, training, or education focused on fields relevant to evidence based medicine: clinical epidemiology; health economics; health services research; public health; biostatistics; medical quality management; public health system planning and evaluation; cost-effectiveness analysis; decision sciences; access to health care; clinical effectiveness; health informatics; biometrics; or outcomes research.
• Willingness to actively participate, make decisions in the best interest of the public, and apply results of evidence based reviews.
• Additional information such as member diversity in geographic location, gender, or ethnic or racial background geographic diversity; experience in treating women, children, elderly persons, and people with diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, and potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information evaluated includes licensure status, active practice eligibility requirements, and sufficient expertise in certain specialties.