More Floridians will soon have access to personalized diagnostic and treatment options, thanks to legislation signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.
The law expands access to biomarker testing for state-sponsored health plans, which can identify the unique cause and progression of certain diseases. If a doctor orders the cutting-edge testing, many insurers will now have a hard time denying it.
Individualized Care Yields Better Patient Outcomes
Biomarker testing provides a glimpse into an individual body at the molecular level, giving doctors and their patients personalized information for devising the most effective treatment approach.
Florida’s new law requires certain insurers to cover the testing when a provider orders it. This can help patients find the most optimal treatment sooner, ultimately reducing treatment costs and downstream morbidity and mortality.
Biomarker testing is already widely used in oncology, but it can also benefit those with other degenerative and autoimmune conditions.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, for example, are often required to try and fail on different medications that a biomarker test could predict immediately would not work for them. Biomarker testing can also be helpful for determining the best treatment approach for patients with Alzheimer’s disease – a condition that can go undiagnosed for years, as precious cognitive function slips away.
Not requiring patients to wait until later, more advanced stages of the disease to access certain types of care is proven to improve survival rates without increasing costs.
Expanding Access to Biomarker Testing
Despite its benefits, access to biomarker testing has historically been very unequal, and insurers have resisted covering the precision medicine tool.
This means patients from rural, marginalized communities and the underinsured usually have less access. In contrast, patients with the most comprehensive insurance or those able to pay in cash have realized broader use of biomarker testing.
But now, thanks to the joint efforts of legislative champion Representative Karen Gonzalez Pittman (R-65), patient advocates, medical societies, physicians, patients and their families, more Floridians will be able to realize the benefits of biomarker testing.
