Invitae Adopts Flat-Rate Price Policy for Patients, Contracted Entities

Invitae is inviting cash-pay patients to its test menu with open arms. The San Francisco-based genomics laboratory has announced that it will charge cash-pay patients a flat rate of $475 per test. Company officials have indicated the new policy is intended to open its panel to patients whose insurers are reluctant to cover assays.

"For years, many people and their families have not had the benefit of clearly indicated genetic testing due to unwillingness of third-party payers to pay the historically high cost," said Robert Nussbaum, M.D., Invitae's chief medical officer and chief of the genomic medicine division at the University of California at San Francisco, in a statement. "Now that the genetics market is becoming a generic market— and thanks to the ongoing innovations and cost reductions in sample preparation, sequencing and medical interpretation—we are beginning to see the benefits translated into affordable testing for patients."

There have been a variety of economic pressures on the laboratory sector to keep prices down for genomic tests. They include the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited labs from holding a patent on a single gene. That opened up the BRCA testing market to many laboratories, quickly driving down the price of that assay. But a combination of new federal regulations making it easier for patients to order tests directly from laboratories and a slow-moving and often rancorous process over how much Medicare would pay for such tests have likely contributed to the trend, although in Invitae's case, cash-paying individual patients still have to obtain a test authorization from a physician.

There are also follow-up tests that patients can take advantage of—such as determining whether they possess high-risk genes after testing negative for BRCA—that their insurers may be unwilling to cover, Invitae said in a statement.

Invitae has also initiated flat rate test pricing for its contracted institutional customers, charging $975 per test. Non-contracted payers and providers will be charged a flat rate of $1,500.

Takeaway: The genomic testing sector may be turning to cash pay patients to overcome short-term reimbursement uncertainties.