Opinion: Medicare should stop blocking access to next-generation sequencing for people with hereditary cancer
A well-established use for next-generation sequencing is identifying people with early-stage hereditary cancers. It doesn't make sense for Medicare to block their access to this test.
America’s policy makers are rightly concerned about identifying the best ways to provide access to affordable health care. Whether it’s reforming the Affordable Care Act or trying to implement “Medicare for all,” there is no shortage of discussion about this important topic. So it’s a surprise that little attention has been given to an unsound Medicare decision that each year will deprive an estimated 20,000 women access to comprehensive testing for hereditary breast cancer.
, a technique that can sequence an individual’s entire genome in , has the potential to revolutionize medicine.
