Recommendation

Congress should provide a pathway for Medicare to cover multi-cancer early detection (MCED) screening tests.

Details

MCED technologies hold the promise to revolutionize America’s cancer-screening paradigm, dramatically expanding the range of detectable cancers and identifying them at earlier stages when cancers are more treatable. Accordingly, Congress should pass the bipartisan Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act, introduced by U.S. Reps. Terri Sewell (D-AL), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), Raul Ruiz (D-CA), and Richard Hudson (R-NC). The legislation creates the authority for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to use an evidence-based process to cover blood-based MCED tests and future test methods once approved by the FDA, while maintaining CMS’s authority to use an evidence-based process to determine coverage parameters for these new types of tests.

Keep reading:

▪ Stephen Ezell, “Seizing the Transformative Opportunity of Multi-cancer Early Detection” (ITIF, April 2021), https://itif.org/publications/2021/04/19/seizing-transformative-opportunity-multi-cancer-early-detection/.