In March 2012, a prominent health insurer in the United States released a white paper entitled: “Personalized Medicine: trends and prospects for the new science of genetic testing and molecular diagnostics” By analyzing their own claims data, the report suggests that in 2010, the cost of genetic and molecular diagnostic testing for its members was about $500 million; nearly 40 percent was for molecular testing for infectious diseases, 16 percent for cancer, and the rest for a variety of conditions including inherited disorders. The report estimates that spending on molecular and genetic tests increased by about 14 percent a year between 2008 and 2010, reaching an estimated $5 billion in 2010. Based on different growth scenarios, the report estimates that U.S. spending for genetic testing could reach between $15 billion and $25 billion by 2021. While three-quarters of doctors surveyed in the report believe that genetic testing allows for more personalized therapy, 56 percent think that new genetic tests will increase health care costs, compared with 19 percent who think genetic testing will reduce health care costs. “We are now in the era of truly personalized care,” said Reed Tuckson, chief of medical affairs at UnitedHealth Group. “However, this also poses significant challenges to a system that is increasingly unaffordable.”
Selected Category: personalized medicine
The Public Health Approach to Genetic Testing in the 21st Century: Saving Lives and Saving Unnecessary Healthcare Costs
Categories: genomics, personalized medicine
March 15th, 2012 1:17 pm ET - Muin J Khoury, Director, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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