How do I Give My Child a Lifetime of Precision Medicine?

These days, healthcare feels like the Wild West. From care facilities to care strategies and various health plans, it’s difficult to navigate what’s best for our families. Now more than ever, with so many decisions, parents must take the lead and choose the best path for their family’s healthcare. This can be overwhelming and ultimately lead to more questions than answers.

The ideal answer remains the same. Families want a solution that works for them. Genetic health screening for children with Fore offers families a comprehensive solution to begin a lifetime of personalized healthcare with precision medicine.

How do families find personalized healthcare solutions?

Families can find personalized healthcare solutions through precision medicine. Precision medicine is targeted, personalized and takes into account the individual and their personalized health signature through understanding the role their genes play in health. Gone are the days where parents can only choose their child’s physician. Unfortunately, gone are the days where parents can wait for the best solution for their child through our healthcare system. Innovative solutions are out there for parents. A small amount of proactive parental research can lead to a powerful proactive solution for a child.

DNA testing is one of the most powerful precision medicine solutions for proactive screening for genetic disease. The opportunity for families to understand the genetics of their child is the most individualized solution to fully understand pre-disposition to disease and response to various medications. Proactive health starts with knowing everything you can, and knowing early enough to take action. Great children’s precision medicine solutions like Fore Genomics offers proactive and comprehensive solutions to parents in one all-encompassing service.

Leaders in healthcare research and regulation point to the precise nature of precision medicine. Its power is limitless in that we’re still discovering its full potential.

FDA definition of Precision Medicine

University of California Davis Center for Precision Medicine

How can families afford personalized healthcare solutions?

Innovative solutions like Fore's genetic health screening offer financing and flexible payment options. Innovative healthcare solutions that don’t focus on accessibility for every family don’t solve problems, they limit family health. Parents shouldn’t have to choose whether or not to take proactive steps for their child. Parents need a precision medicine solution on a mission to be comprehensive, affordable and accessible.

Fore Genomics’ has a mission to make clinically actionable genetics solutions available and accessible to all families, enabling early diagnosis and immediate proactive steps towards clinical care for children (www.foregenomics.com).

Fore has taken steps to mitigate a financial burden by offering financing options as low as $85 per month. Fore also partners with innovative firms like Flex payment solutions (www.withflex.com) to help families make use of Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). Through payments and financing options, we’re determined to make a comprehensive and powerful solution an option for every family.

What happens if families wait for universal DNA testing for children? Is the healthcare system going to give families a solution?

Today’s healthcare system is not bringing precision medicine to every family any time soon. Our healthcare system is struggling on many fronts. It’s getting harder and harder to seek care, share data and make appropriate coverage decisions. With seemingly no cooperation across offices and insurers, what is happening?

Let’s dive into a bit of the healthcare jargon around our current system.

Our healthcare model follows what’s known as “The Sick Model”. We treat symptoms and not causes of health problems. We are a reactive system, not using the science, innovation and advancements at our disposal. More and more we are seeing health insurers hide behind doctor networks and diagnosis codes to limit physicians in their ability to act. Physicians are pushed through protocols to help their patients get care that is paid for. However, many of these protocols then limit physicians from seeking more answers.

Enter Population Health

So, what’s the answer to our reactive healthcare issue? The answer is “Population Health”, allegedly.

Health payer professionals have been speaking about Population Health for years. In this system, insurers would get paid based on how well they take care of their entire population, not just on addressing the symptoms of the sickest patients. This has been in talks for almost 10 years.

So, what’s the hold up? Unfortunately, and very predictably, it’s money!

If health payer companies switch over to the burden of proactive care, they immediately face hundreds of millions of open care gaps to give people the precision medicine that would address their unique health needs. This would predictably decimate profit and C-suite bonuses resulting from health plan quality ratings and other objective measures of care coverage.

How did our healthcare system get in this mess in the first place?

We started treating everyone the same. We don’t treat people like individuals.

Perhaps the biggest challenge is today’s healthcare treating us all the same, lumping us into groups. Individuals are not just members of a group, they’re unique and need a personalized health plan.

Drugs are developed for all. During drug trials, solutions that completely address a portion of the population are thrown out. Solutions that somewhat address the whole population are moved forward. Individuals suffer with a group solution that doesn’t meet their needs.

Payer solutions are built for all. Many families have choices between too much coverage versus not enough. Payers constrain plans so much that parents have to opt out of care needed for their family due to financial considerations. Many times families have a child with an area of special need, but they can’t address that unique need.

Physician protocols are built for all. Physicians are forced to follow insurance protocols in diagnosing, referring and treating their patients. Our system limits some of our smartest and most capable healthcare workers from being proactive and embracing precision medicine. Today’s best precision medicine solutions are approved for use by physicians, allowing a high fidelity and complete solution for care planning.

What makes a DNA solution accessible and the right option for every family? 

DNA and genetics solutions require some education. The right family solution can bridge the gap on information, provide the best solution possible and make things convenient and easy for parents.

Let’s describe the right solution for parents.

The best solution would…

1. Keep Learning. Create and maintain a learning experience. Keep families up to date on the latest in genetics research. Provide articles and videos locally on a website and through social media forums and industry speaking events. Keep proactive communication on gene-disease validations and create value with genetic counseling services.
2. Be confidential and convenient. Build a family solution that is easy to sign up and go through the process. No need to visit your physician. FORESITE 360 is an all-inclusive service offering virtual counseling for pre-purchase questions. Simple online signup and form submission. Telemedicine physician and genetic counselor networks for referral and results delivery. A simple at-home cheek swab test. All from the comfort and privacy of your home.
3. Be accessible to every family. Provide families with lots of payment options to consider. Pay in full with a credit card of use your HSA or FSA account. If paying in full isn’t an option, use flexible payment plans starting as low as $90 for 36 months with qualifying credit.
4. Be approved for clinical care. Focus on providing the best of every aspect of the solution. Follow all protocols and laboratory accreditations (CLIA and CAP) meeting requirements to be approved for clinical use. Provide expert genetic counseling. Provide family physicians with educational material and provide health condition information for child diagnosis.
5. Work with the best partners. Perhaps most important, surround ourselves with great partners who push to be the best. The best labs, best analytics and bioinformatics, the best counselors and the best ecommerce providers who help bring amazing solutions to families who need a new opportunity to provide their family with the best care possible.

How should I think about precision medicine for my child?

Parents have to do the research to understand that 100% DNA sequencing is the only baseline of a solution that can offer their child the most comprehensive protection. Parents need to do their research, understand the solution they are considering and what its claims are. This isn’t an easy task.

If you’re considering Fore, it’s an easy summary.

Fore provides the health screening that is:

• The only test in the market designed specifically for children
• Sequencing 100% of your child’s DNA with whole genome sequencing. Everything in their DNA is covered read.
• Looking at 500+ gene-disease indicators of disease predisposition.
• Looking at 40+ medications for allergic reactions and dosage control.
• Approved for clinical use, following all lab and process requirements.
• Storing your child’s data securely, no data sharing.
• An at-home test. No office visits. All services provided virtually with support for your current doctors.
• Flexible with financing options.
• Annually Expanding. Every year Fore adds all gene-disease clinical validations. Every year, through age 18, parents receive an updated report on their child notifying them if any clinical research is now important to their child’s health.

Parents have all of the information they need. For the most comprehensive DNA test for children, which covers them through age 18, and costs as low as a cell phone bill monthly. Precision medicine for your child is a personalized healthcare solution that is accessible today.

For those looking for deeper insights into genetic screenings, check out our informative E-book, Parent’s Guide to Newborn and Infant Genomics.