Genetic testing costs

This section presents information on the benefits, costs, risks, and limitations of genetic testing. 

What Is the Cost of Genetic Testing, and How Long Does It Take to Get the Results ... 

The cost of genetic testing can range from under 100 to more than 2,000, depending on the nature and complexity of the test. The cost increases if more than one test is necessary or if multiple family members must be tested to obtain a meaningful result. For newborn... 

Will Health Insurance Cover the Costs of Genetic Testing ... 

In many cases, health insurance plans will cover the costs of genetic testing when it is recommended by a person s doctor. Health insurance providers have different policies about which tests are covered, however. A person interested in submitting the costs of testing may wish to contact his or her insurance company beforehand to ask about coverage. 

Some people may choose not to use their insurance to pay for testing because the results of a genetic test can affect a person s health insurance coverage. Instead, they may opt to pay out-of-pocket for the test. People considering genetic testing may want to find out more about their state s privacy protection laws before they ask their insurance company to cover the costs. 

The controversy over genetic testing is closely tied to costs (who will pay ) and related privacy issues (if the insurance company pays, will they have access ). As drug products become increasingly customized to genetic makeup, these issues will have to be resolved. In the next 10 years, a copy of your genetic profile is likely to be as common—an as accessible—as your cholesterol score. 

Introduction of genetic tests seems therefore premature, especially when considering the fact that any recommendations and decisions may be based on insufficient or even inadequate scientific data. Robust and validated data are difficult to obtain, because of the limited availability of biomarkers of health as well as the high cost of human Foodomics intervention studies (96). 

Despite the general enthusiasm and belief that pharmacogenomics will benefit drug therapy, the eventual decision to use genetic testing in the clinic may bear in part on cost-effectiveness analyses (102,103). This is not an unrealistic assumption because many of the newer therapies customized... 

Phillips KA, Veenstra DL, Ramsey SD, Van Bebber SL, Sakowski J. Genetic testing and pharmacogenomics issues for determining the impact to healthcare delivery and costs. Am J Manag Care 2004 10 425-432. 

---