FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2008
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AdvaMed Supports Promoting Personalized Medicine through Appropriate Payment at CMS Public Meeting on Payment for New Clinical Lab Tests
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Washington, D.C. – Teresa Lee, AdvaMed’s vice president for payment and healthcare delivery policy, spoke today before the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) concerning the payment for new clinical laboratory tests:
“We appreciate CMS’s effort in conducting this public meeting to discuss payment for new clinical laboratory tests for 2009. This annual meeting has had an important role in enhancing the transparency and openness of CMS’s new test payment determination processes and we appreciate the opportunity to present today.
“AdvaMed supports the Administration’s personalized health care initiative because we believe that we are on the threshold of a new era—one when treatments can be precisely calibrated for individual patients to achieve maximum effectiveness.
“The foundation of this new era of health care is molecular and other advanced diagnostic testing. The mapping of the human genome is providing unprecedented information about how specific diseases affect individuals. As a result, newer, faster, more accurate diagnostic tests are being developed which will identify diseases earlier, whether a treatment will or will not be effective, and the best way is to administer that treatment.
“The advent of personalized medicine will not only mean better outcomes and significantly improved quality for patients, but will also have a favorable impact on the health care system as a whole. Diseases may be detected earlier when they are less expensive to treat and when patients often have a greater chance for complete recovery. Diagnostic tests that enable targeted therapies hold the potential to tailor treatments based on clinical information, avoiding the trial-and-error approach to finding the best course of care.
“Steps to ensure appropriate reimbursement mechanisms for these new diagnostic tests can encourage innovation in this field and facilitate the realization of personalized medicine. We look forward to working with CMS to pave the way toward personalized medicine."
###AdvaMed member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. Our members produce nearly 90 percent of the health care technology purchased annually in the United States and more than 50 percent purchased annually around the world. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies. For more information, visit http://www.advamed.org/.