Ochsner Health is becoming one of the first hospital systems to standardize genomic testing, significantly advancing ways in which care teams can treat cancer patients. This change helps providers determine individualized treatment by understanding how patients will react to certain drugs, thereby lowering risk of adverse side effects, improving patient experience, and bettering patient outcomes.
Pharmacogenomics, or PGx, testing guides physicians how patients metabolize certain drugs and warns of possible side effects so they may adjust dosage in a way that provides individualized, personalized treatment. After a Louisiana law requiring insurance companies pay for the testing went into effect last year, Ochsner made it a required test for cancer patients receiving two types of chemotherapy drugs – 5-fluorouracil and capecitabine. The testing is now available at Ochsner's Baton Rouge and New Orleans regions and in Northern Louisiana locations. It will become a systemwide practice in coming months.
“We are leading the nation in this area,” said Marc Matrana, MD, MS, FACP, Ochsner Health’s System medical director for precision medicine and endowed professor of experimental therapeutics. “This is something unique Ochsner is at the forefront of, that is preventing hospitalization and saving lives. We’ve built this in a very thoughtful way, from advocating for new laws around reimbursement to integrating safety stops into the electronic medical record, that will serve as an example to the rest of the world.”
Ochsner is also leading the way in PGx by covering the cost of testing under its three employee health plans for employees with certain mental health diagnoses. The one-time lab panel looks at a patient’s DNA to predict response to certain medications, including behavioral health therapies.
Ochsner’s testing partner, OneOme, is also working with other insurance plans to make testing as affordable as possible. All Medicare or Medicaid patients will have no out-of-pocket cost. While each patients’ commercial insurance plans vary, OneOme has a generous financial assistance program available to those who qualify.
Through the relationship with OneOme, Ochsner providers can have results in about five days, which prevents delays in care for cancer patients and others. Discrete results automatically flow back into the health record, making them useful for care teams. Pharmacogenomic testing is only needed once during a lifetime for most patients, and it is reflected in the patient’s record in a way that it is readily accessible now or in the future.