from LinkNKY

Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bill requiring insurance companies to cover biomarker testing, which advocates say will improve the state’s dismal cancer statistics.

Sponsored by Rep. Kim Moser (R-Taylor Mill), House Bill 180 will cover biomarker testing, which healthcare professionals say is a way to determine the best treatment for each individual.

“Biomarker testing is a way to track the progression of certain diseases, especially tumors,” Beshear said. “The testing looks for genes that can provide information about the possibility of a future cancer diagnosis.”

Moser said the bill would help those fighting cancer — she also noted that the legislature passed the Lung Cancer Screening Act last year.

“We have the unfortunate ranking as number one in lung cancer in the nation, and we seek to change that,” Moser said. “We are moving in the right direction.”

Roughly 10,000 Kentuckians will die from cancer this year, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society, and 30,000 will be diagnosed with the disease.

“This will save lives,” Moser said. “It will mitigate the long-term health effects that we see from cancer treatments that may or may not work, and this period of instability for patients will go away.”

Gravity Diagnostics’ CEO Tony Remington said that passing the bill is a massive step for the state.

“Most people don’t realize it, but over 50% of the population in the United States doesn’t metabolize medication the way it was indicated,” Remington said.