Page 7 - Htain Manual

Preface

T
o facilitate the process of transparent and evidence informed decision making in
the field of health, Government of India decided to set up an institutional
mechanism for Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn). HTAIn will
generate and compile evidence related to cost-effectiveness, clinical effectiveness and safety
of medicines, devices and health programmes by means of Health Technology Assessment
(HTA) studies. Such studies will evaluate appropriateness and cost effectiveness of the
available and new health technologies in India, so that people can have access to quality
healthcare and we ensure the best value gained from the health budget.

Establishment of HTAIn is an important milestone in our progress towards achieving
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as it would encourage better choice of technology and
programme design, optimize expenditure, lowering overall cost of medical treatment and
reducing out-of-pocket expenditures on the part of patients. This would also facilitate medical
reimbursement procedures and improvement in quality of care for government-funded
health insurance schemes, such as the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) under
Ayushman Bharat Yojana and other state insurance schemes.

This short manual seeks to familiarize readers with the concepts of HTA, and to
increase their knowledge base and build capacity on how to conduct HTA studies in our
country’s settings. It also highlights the potential of HTA to contribute to evidence based
decision-making and policy formulation for deployment of effective health interventions in
India.