To date, biomarker tests have been well known for their contributions to cancer treatment with good reason. Since the early 1990s, overall cancer mortality in the U.S. has fallen by 34%, which amounts to a reduction of 4.5 million cancer deaths. Biomarker tests are a big reason why.
Today, biomarkers are becoming part of vital care in other medical fields like cardiology, immunology and even mental health. The stakes of personalized medicine could not be higher: earlier diagnoses, better treatments and saved lives. Unfortunately, not all patients can access precision treatments because not all health insurance policies cover biomarker testing.
That is what House Bill 8, legislation now in front of state policymakers, would change. This legislation would require insurance policies in the state of Ohio to cover biomarker tests when a clinician deems it medically necessary, which is how health care is supposed to work. When a clinician says a test is required, insurance should cover it. But today, insurers often get the final word and too often that word is “no.”
More than 20 states have already passed similar laws, including deep blue California and New York, and deep red Texas and Louisiana, plus Ohio neighbors Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana. Several other states are also considering biomarker legislation this year. HB 8 isn’t about Ohio catching up with the rest of the country; it’s about the health care system keeping up with the science.
States are passing biomarker testing reform because of the promise that precision medicine offers people, especially those living with progressive diseases. Policymakers across the country, and in both parties, should ensure all people have access to these innovative therapies, not just the privileged few.
Future biomarker testing options offer the same hope to patients with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other diseases, just as debilitating and lethal as cancer.
As a geriatric psychiatrist in Dayton, I know firsthand the impact degenerative neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s have on my patients and their families. Precision medicine research is leading to the development of new tools that could help us detect and treat these illnesses earlier and more effectively than ever before. One test, for instance, can identify early signs of the amyloid and tau buildup that causes Alzheimer’s years before the onset of symptoms. Another RNA-based biomarker test detects Parkinson’s years before symptoms present. Another may be able to predict postpartum depression.
Earlier diagnoses for serious neurological conditions give patients and their clinicians a longer window to start disease-modifying therapies. They offer patients invaluable time they otherwise would not have.
These tests are not “experimental” anymore. Millions of patients and their loved ones have benefited from them. Patients, no matter the diseases they face, should have the opportunity and the right to access them on a timeline set by their clinicians, not insurance companies.
HB 8 is not the revolution — personalized, precision medicine made possible by biomarker tests is. Passing this bill is the legislature’s way of acknowledging this fact and ensuring that no Ohioans are left behind.
Dr. Amita Patel, MD, is a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist in Dayton.
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