10 Jul Aetna Launches Precision Medicine Efforts to Improve Health Outcomes and Decrease Costs

The payer arena is starting to embrace precision medicine to improve overall health outcomes and enhance cost-savings. For example, Aetna is now leading the way with a new precision medicine program that embraces breast and ovarian cancer testing program using the BRCA gene test.

Aetna is also implementing a genetic information privacy policy, becoming the first health plan to require quality credentialing of genetic testing labs. With the number of genetic tests increasing to more than 50,000 in the last five years, precision medicine can play a part in helping to screen for, diagnose, prevent, treat and even cure disease, according to Aetna.

“As our understanding of genomics continues to grow, we are seeing the development of a new generation of genetic testing and targeted treatments,” said Joanne Armstrong, MD, MPH, senior medical director at Aetna, in this company announcement. “Although we have a long way to go to replace the current ‘one size fits all’ medical model with individualized genetics diagnostics and hyper-specific treatments, the evolution of this field is exciting.”

Armstrong noted that as genetic testing and precision medicine become more common, the health care industry must take steps to ensure the quality of results so that patients can get the care they need.

According to this recent Health Payer Intelligence article, a study of 13,000 behavioral health patients found that genetic testing resulted in fewer drug prescriptions, savings of on average $1,036 in prescription costs, and 17 percent higher adherence. PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) also recently named precision medicine as a tool to combat the impending six percent increase in the 2020 medical cost trend.

As payers look for new and innovative ways to enhance care quality and drive down costs, these types of efforts can certainly be augmented by developing strategies for creating trusted data that can drive actionable insights and enhance operational efficiencies.

IMAT Solutions allows payers to connect, collect, validate and normalize all health data for not only tackling today’s data tsunami challenges, but for better coordinating care, and advance new population health initiatives.

To learn more about how payers can best harness their data for improved analytics, interoperability and outcomes, please click here.