Wednesday, March 13, 2019

What Entities Joined the Sign-On Letter to CMS, re the NGS NCD?

On January 31, 2019, some sixty entities joined a sign-on letter raising concerns that CMS was unexpectedly moving to block all uses of next generation sequencing in inherited cancers, removing coverage provided by local coverage decisions in all states.   The local coverage has been consistent with ASCO, NCCN, and other cancer patient management guidelines.  The coverage was also consistent with clinical practice both in community settings and in academic centers.

  • See story at Genomeweb here, article at STAT here.  
  • See the actual sign on letter here, and press release about it here.

I've attempted to generally categorize the signers, although my listing may not be perfect.  I separate organizations that are primarily patient disease associations at left.  Then, I've listed clinician associations (like ASCO and AMA) outside the lab profession.  Next are direct care entities (e.g. Columbia University).  The two right columns are for associations in the lab industry and its professionals, and finally actual lab entities or industry entities.

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For my white paper on the issue, here.

For an even newer ACLA press release on guideline-based cancer genetics, here.