Is that a brick in your pocket or are you just trying to call me to discuss the future of personalized medicine?

  • by: |
  • 01/07/2008
Teresa Lee, vice president of payment and policy for AdvaMed, opines in The Journal of Life Sciences ...

“The advent of personalized medicine will not only mean better outcomes for patients, but for the health care system as a whole, as diseases will be detected earlier when they are less expensive to treat and when there is a greater chance for complete recovery. Eliminating the expense associated with latter stages of disease will save the healthcare system untold billions and allow more resources to be devoted to areas such as preventive services, to help combat disease before they even start.

Unfortunately, the promise of molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine might not be realized because of Medicare reimbursement policies that were devised for diagnostics technologies of 1984, back when a cell phone was the size of a brick and cost $4,000.”

Here’s a link to the entire article:

http://www.tjols.com/article-487.html

Lee’s conclusion?

"In order to address these issues and encourage innovation that will enable personalized medicine to fulfill its promise, it is important for Congress to pass the Medicare Advanced Laboratory Diagnostics Act, which will reform many of the outdated Medicare policies that discourage the development and adoption of new clinical diagnostic laboratory tests.

Momentum is growing to enact this needed reform to modernize Medicare’s outdated reimbursement policies that will finally let the full potential of innovative molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine thrive. “

For more information on this issue, please see our earlier blog, "Chuck and Cover" at

http://drugwonks.com/2007/12/chuck_and_cover.html
CMPI

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.

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