Health wellness

Health System Integrates Genomic Screening Into Primary Care Pathways

MercyOne Integrates Genomic Screening Into Routine Primary Care, First in Iowa to Close Precision-Medicine Gap

Des Moines, Iowa – November 26, 2025 MercyOne, the state’s largest non-profit health system, today announced the system-wide launch of “GeneCheck,” a program that adds genomic screening to every adult primary-care pathway. Patients who schedule wellness visits at any of MercyOne’s 140 central-Iowa clinics will now be offered a 55-gene panel that identifies variants linked to preventable hereditary cancers, familial hypercholesterolemia and malignant hyperthermia. Results are returned through the electronic health record (EHR) with automated, evidence-based care prompts for both physician and patient portals.

The rollout follows a 14-month pilot that screened 5,000 ethnically diverse patients across rural and urban clinics. Twelve percent carried a medically actionable variant; 68 percent of those had no known family history that would have triggered traditional referral.

“Embedding genomics at the frontline of care changes the referral paradigm from family history to population health,” said Dr. Rishi Patel, MercyOne’s chief medical informatics officer. “We are catching the same number of BRCA1/2 carriers in six months that our oncology service previously identified in two years.”

Nationwide, fewer than 15 percent of individuals who meet clinical criteria for hereditary cancer testing ever receive it, largely because primary-care providers lack decision support or genetics access.

MercyOne’s model addresses both gaps. GeneCheck is ordered with a single click in Epic; positive results trigger a telehealth consult with one of four board-certified genetic counselors embedded in family-medicine departments. Counselors use Geisinger-validated scripts to discuss cascade testing, specialist referrals and insurance coverage, cutting average follow-up time from 60 days to six.

Quote

“Genomics can’t improve outcomes if it stays locked in specialty clinics,” said Bob Ritz, president & CEO of MercyOne. “By making screening as routine as a lipid panel, we are meeting patients where they already are, catching disease years earlier and ultimately bending the cost curve for employers and payers alike.”

Market data support the business case. The U.S. genomic screening market is projected to reach $4.9 billion by 2028, driven by CMS reimbursement for hereditary cancer assays and bipartisan federal legislation expanding coverage for preventive genomics.

A 2024 actuarial analysis by Milliman estimates that identifying one BRCA carrier before stage-II cancer saves $98,000 in lifetime payer costs; identifying one case of familial hypercholesterolemia before the first cardiac event saves $23,000.

MercyOne negotiated a flat $249 per-test rate with its reference lab, allowing the system to absorb cost for uninsured patients through its community-benefit fund. Insured patients typically face zero cost-share because the assay maps to existing CPT codes for hereditary cancer panels already covered by Iowa’s dominant payers, including Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and Iowa Medicaid.

Implementation science guided the launch. Clinicians completed 30 minutes of CME-accredited training co-developed with the National Society of Genetic Counselors; the curriculum increased provider confidence in ordering from 42 percent to 87 percent.

Meanwhile, patient-reported experience scores collected during the pilot showed 93 percent felt “well-informed” about why the test was offered, and 28 percent went on to alert at least one blood relative, amplifying cascade screening without additional system cost.

MercyOne plans to expand GeneCheck to prenatal and pediatric services in 2026 and is sharing Epic build specifications with Trinity Health’s 90-hospital network, of which it is a member. De-identified data will be contributed to the National Institutes of Health’s “All of Us” research program to advance health-equity research in Midwestern populations historically under-represented in genomics databases.

About MercyOne

MercyOne is a member of Trinity Health, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health systems in the nation. Across Iowa, MercyOne operates 16 hospitals, 140 clinics and a physician-led accountable care organization serving 650,000 lives. Its mission is to provide exceptional care that “makes the healing presence of God known to all.”