by Diane Allingham-Hawkins, PhD, FCCMG, FACMG, Director, Genetic Test Evaluation Services (follow on Twitter)

One of the greatest challenges related to developing and enforcing coverage policies for genetic testing has been the lack of specific CPT® codes. When a single CPT code is not available to describe accurately all the steps of a genetic testing procedure, many genetic test providers engage in a common practice known as “code stacking.” This cumbersome system involves using a series of CPT stacking codes, 83890-83914, to describe the testing process. Code stacking, however, makes it difficult for health plans to know what exactly is being tested and what they are reimbursing, since the stacking codes offer no indication of the specific analyte being tested.

Tags: CPT codes, genetic testing, genetics, GTE, Hayes Blog, healthcare, molecular tests
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by Winifred S. Hayes, PhD, President and CEO, Hayes, Inc.

In my previous post, “Is industry-funded research biased?” I mentioned a 2010 manuscript published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA. 2010;303(20):2058-2064). Today, I’d like to look more closely at this analysis and talk about why its results are concerning.

This article, titled “’Spin’ of statistical non-significance” provides an analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in December 2006 that reported statistically nonsignificant results for the primary outcome. The authors wanted to determine the level of “spin” or distortion of nonsignificant results. Of 616 articles identified, 72 of them met inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis.

What types of spin were the investigators looking for?

Tags: evidence-based healthcare, Hayes Blog, healthcare, healthcare research, healthcare technologies, randomized controlled trials
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by Winifred S. Hayes, PhD, President and CEO, Hayes, Inc.

Evidence-based practices in healthcare are only as good as the evidence that supports them. In my previous post, I noted that the gold standard of good evidence is randomized controlled trials (RCTs). RCTs are expensive to conduct, and many of these trials are funded by pharmaceutical, medical device, or biotechnology companies who want to see positive outcomes from the research they support. Much of the research is the result of collaborations among individuals such as clinical investigators, biostatisticians, contract research organizations, and employees of the research sponsors. Everyone involved in the research shares a responsibility to report the results in an accurate, unbiased, and ethical fashion.

Tags: cancer, evidence-based healthcare, healthcare, healthcare bias, patient outcomes, randomized controlled clinical trials
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