Blue Shield of California is the first health plan to pay for rapid whole genome sequencing for critically ill children so physicians can quickly identify and decode the root causes of rare genetic disorders.
The insurer announced the expanded coverage March 9. The technology, made by Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine in San Diego, helps provide precision treatment to critically ill children and babies in intensive care who have unexplained medical conditions.
Using a blood sample, researchers at Rady Children's Institute pinpoint a preliminary diagnosis in less than three days for medically urgent cases. Any hospital can send the samples to Rady Children's for testing.
"Our system is optimized to identify or rule out most genetic diseases in a single test, and provide the medical team at the bedside with child-specific, disease-specific information so they can make better, faster medical decisions," Stephen Kingsmore, MD, president and CEO of Rady Children's, said in a prepared statement.