By Kenneth E. Thorpe
Nearly half of American voters have a loved one who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. And Alzheimer’s will touch even more families in the years ahead, as the number of Americans living with the fatal disease nearly doubles by 2050.
Thankfully, scientists are developing new tools to help diagnose and manage Alzheimer’s. Among the most promising are blood tests that could help millions of Americans receive diagnoses earlier — so they can start treatment sooner.
But it’s not enough for these tools to exist. Patients need access to these promising tests as soon as they’re approved. For that to happen, Congress will need to pass legislation ensuring Medicare can cover new screening tests — and cut the red tape that currently risks preventing Alzheimer’s patients from getting the care they need.
A bipartisan bill, the Alzheimer’s Screening and Prevention (ASAP) Act, would do precisely that. The bill offers lawmakers an opportunity to remove a barrier standing between patients and earlier diagnosis, potentially allowing patients to get valuable time back.
Historically, Alzheimer’s was difficult to diagnose. Initial symptoms can be hard to recognize, particularly among older adults experiencing general cognitive decline. Doctors had to rely on a combination of medical history, physical exams, brain scans, and cerebrospinal fluid testing.
As a result, it can take patients over three years after symptoms first emerge to receive an official diagnosis.
Now, new tools are emerging that could dramatically speed up this timeline. Last year, the FDA cleared the first blood test used to help diagnose Alzheimer’s. The test detects biological markers in the blood associated with the disease, offering an easier and less invasive testing option. In the future, doctors could use similar blood tests as screening tools to identify Alzheimer’s far earlier — long before symptoms worsen.
That kind of earlier diagnosis can make an enormous difference.
For one, it gives families more time to plan and prepare for the financial and caregiving burdens that come with Alzheimer’s. Long-term care services can cost $72,800 to $115,000 annually. Many family members of patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementias become caregivers themselves, collectively providing more than 19 billion hours of unpaid care worth over $446 billion.
Alzheimer’s damages the connections between brain cells. Once those neurons are lost, they can’t be repaired or regenerated. Alzheimer’s treatments therefore generally focus on preventing damage and slowing the disease’s progression. And after a certain point, patients simply aren’t eligible for treatment anymore.
Yet for patients to benefit from recent diagnostic advances, Medicare needs to cover them.
Policymakers shouldn’t stop there, though. As Alzheimer’s science continues to advance, Medicare needs to keep pace by removing unnecessary barriers and ensuring that patients can actually access the new diagnostics and treatments that researchers develop.
We increasingly have the tools to change the trajectory of early-stage Alzheimer’s. But first, we must ensure that patients can access those tools in time. Doing so would create wide ripple effects of positive impact on millions of individuals and families facing this staggering diagnosis.
Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Health Policy at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and the honorary Chair of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. This piece originally ran in DCJournal.com
-
-
-
-
-