Cowboys QB Dak Prescott supports effort to get cancer test covered by Medicare

By Nicole Vallalpando
AS SEEN IN USA TODAY

Imagine a blood test that could screen you for 20 different kinds of cancer. Now imagine your insurance covered it, and it was part of your routine annual wellness exam.

The technology exists and is used by people who can afford the $2,000 to $3,000 annual out-of-pocket expense. These multi-cancer early detection screening tests look in the blood for genetic biomarkers shed by cancer cells. Once a specific biomarker is found, additional screening for that type of cancer would be done to confirm the diagnosis and start treatment.

This technology has not received approval from the Food & Drug Administration, but legislation being introduced in Congress would make the screening automatically covered by Medicare once it has been, or when the FDA signs off on the use of the test through a less-time consuming route such as reclassification of a medical device.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, whose mother Nancy Gardner Sewell died from from pancreatic cancer in 2021, said this legislation is similar to what happened with the colon cancer stool screening kits, well known by the brand name Cologuard.

"The FDA has a role to play, but the fact of the matter is so often it still takes years of red tape to come to market," Sewell said. "We want to fast track it the way we did for colon cancer."

The Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act was introduced again in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday by Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the House budget chairman.

“This year, the families of 2 million Americans will learn their loved one has been diagnosed with cancer, and the only way to win this all-too-personal war on cancer and defeat this insidious disease is to unleash the power of American innovation,” Arrington said. “Increasing access to multi-cancer early detection screenings will not only drastically improve quality of life for American cancer patients and their families while saving taxpayer dollars, but save lives by catching cancer before it spreads."

A version of the act was first introduced in 2020, then again in 2021 and in 2023. The late U.S. Rep. Shirley Jackson Lee of Houston, who died of pancreatic cancer last year, was an early supporter of this legislation.

Last year, Sewell said, the bill had bipartisan support of more than 300 U.S. representatives and more than 60 U.S. senators, but "we ran out of time," Sewell said of the legislative cycle. This time, "we're starting early."

Among the supporters is Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who paid for his team's staff to get the blood screening last summer. That led to the early detection of Cowboys' communications vice president Tad Carper's cancer in the tonsils.

“This is critical for so many across our nation, a true game-changing lifesaver," Carper said. "I was lucky enough to benefit from the access Dak provided. It shouldn’t need to come to that, though."

Having that blood test might have saved Prescott's own mother, who died in 2013 after not being diagnosed with colon cancer until it was stage 4.

“The science and technology exist right now to dramatically reduce the impact of cancer and change the story of countless people and families for generations to come," Prescott said. "We need this now. There is no acceptable reason for delay. This is literally about life and death, like it was for Tad.”

The test also might have helped Sewell's mother, who was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and died eight weeks later. Sewell said her mother was "an amazing role model to me," being the first African-American woman to be on the Selma City Council and a career high school librarian.

"Cancer affects everyone," Sewell said. "The reality is the science exists but is available now only for people who have a concierge doctor."

Sewell, 60, did do the screening test for herself by paying more than $2,000 for it, but she thinks of her twin brothers who are three years younger than her and are both school teachers and cannot afford the test, even though they now have a family history of pancreatic cancer.

Passing this bill would help Medicare recipients get these tests once they are approved by the FDA, help drive down the costs of the tests for consumers and encourage private-sector insurance to also pay for testing, Sewell said.

The science, Sewell said, came out of innovations funded by National Institutes of Health grants. "This is science that tax payers helped pay for," she said. "When we invest in these kinds of innovations through the very start, we should all benefit from this."