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CMS Director To Diagnostics Industry: Prove Your Cancer Tests Work

“Why are insurers so reluctant to get enthusiastic and really embrace molecular diagnostics?” asked the director of CMS’ coverage and analysis group at a recent cancer diagnostics symposium. “Because half the time we have no idea what on earth we’re paying for.”

CMS Coverage and Analysis Group director Louis Jacques tried to temper the widespread enthusiasm for scientific advances in cancer diagnosis in his concluding speech at an Oct. 29 Washington, D.C. symposium on cancer diagnostics and personalized medicine.

He reminded the diagnostics industry that molecular diagnostics for the disease remain a largely unproven technology. “Why are insurers so reluctant to get enthusiastic and really embrace molecular diagnostics

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