Benefits and Harms of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Ruling on Next-Generation Sequencing

On March 16, 2018, the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a national coverage determination (NCD) on how it intends to reimburse next-generation sequencing (NGS) for Medicare beneficiaries.¹ The NCD allows automatic coverage of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved NGS testing for patients covered by Medicare and for additional testing when the patient has a new primary cancer diagnosis. Although this ruling creates an immediate effect on all stakeholders of the health care delivery model, it falls short of advancing science, medicine, and public health.