How much does genetic testing cost? What you pay at GeneMatrix

Here is every test we sell and its self-pay price. You pay once, when you order. Each name links to the test’s own page, which says what it reports and what it can’t tell you.

GeneBaby is a test for your baby, from the baby’s own saliva swab, to talk through with your pediatrician.

GeneBaby does not replace the newborn screening your state performs at birth, and it is not a diagnostic test. Deciding to test a child is a decision to make with your pediatrician.

Oral Health DNA looks at the microbes in your saliva, not your own DNA, in a report to talk through with your dentist.

Oral Health DNA is a laboratory-developed test performed in our own CLIA-certified laboratory. New York is the exception: orders shipped there are completed through a physician order or a reference laboratory permitted in New York. It has not been cleared or approved by the FDA. It measures the DNA of microbes in your saliva, not your DNA: it is not a genetic test, not a diagnosis, and not a prediction of any disease.

At GeneMatrix, the price without insurance is the published self-pay price: $199 to $499 for a genetic test, paid once when you order. Every order is self-pay today, so a health plan doesn’t change that price. Elsewhere, the price without insurance depends on the test and the lab, so ask for the self-pay price before you are tested.

• The kit, the lab work and your report. Your price covers the kit you use at home, the laboratory work and your report. For a US address, shipping adds nothing to it. When your results are ready we email you (the email never names your test) with the lab’s secure link to your report, which asks for the tested person’s details before it opens.
• The first year of GeneMatrix+. The first year of GeneMatrix+ is included when you turn on automatic renewal at checkout. After that it’s $99 a year until you cancel. The year starts on the day you order, and while it’s active, your results are re-read automatically whenever the evidence from our sources is updated. Leave automatic renewal off and you get the test alone. How renewal and cancelling work.
• Not with Oral Health DNA. It isn’t a genetic test, so it doesn’t include GeneMatrix+.
• Our refund promise. Full refund within 30 days of ordering, as long as your results haven’t been delivered.

MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, says the cost of a genetic test depends on the nature and complexity of the test, and goes up when more than one test, or testing of family members, is needed.^[1] Four things help explain why two tests differ:

• What the test reads. Some tests check a chosen set of known variants (what genotyping is). Others look at whole genes for changes, or at the one variant already known to run in a family.^[3]
• How many genes. A test may look at one gene or at a panel of many genes at once.^[3]
• Who is involved. Clinical tests for inherited cancer risk, for example, are usually requested by a doctor, a genetic counselor or another health care provider who has first looked at your personal and family history.^[3] That care can add to what testing costs.
• How it is paid. A test billed to a health plan has no single price: what you owe depends on your plan. At GeneMatrix, the self-pay price is set, and you see it before you order.

GenePGx, our PGx test, is $399 at the self-pay price, paid when you order. Checks selected known variants in 15 genes, plus CYP2D6 copy number, by genotyping. It shows how your genes may affect the way your body processes certain medicines, for you to discuss with your prescriber.

Pharmacogenomic results describe how your body is likely to process certain medicines. They do not tell you whether a medicine will work for you, and they are not dosing instructions. Never start, stop or change a medication because of a genetic result. Bring it to the prescriber who manages your medicines.

Prices for PGx tests elsewhere vary with how many genes a test reads, whether it counts missing or extra copies of a gene, and whether a consultation comes with it. Comparing GenePGx with GeneSight? How the two compare on price and insurance.

Insurance billing for GenePGx is coming soon. Until it opens, every order is self-pay.

• The self-pay door, open now. You pay the published price when you order. We don’t send a claim to your health plan.
• The insurance door, coming soon. You use your health plan, and you see an estimate of your cost before any testing happens.

A clinician-ordered BRCA test and an at-home test of selected variants are different tests, priced and paid for differently. Our BRCA page covers what a BRCA test costs and how to get one.

The National Cancer Institute says health insurance typically covers genetic counseling and genetic tests that are considered medically necessary, and suggests talking about costs and coverage with your health care provider and your insurance company before you are tested. If you don’t have insurance, it notes that some organizations offer subsidized testing, and its Cancer Information Service can help you find them.^[3] MedlinePlus adds that plans have different policies about which tests they cover.^[2]

Checks selected variants across 108 genes, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, by genotyping. It isn’t a full BRCA1 and BRCA2 test: it checks selected variants, so it can miss variants it doesn’t look for, and a result with nothing found doesn’t rule out inherited cancer risk. Its self-pay price is $399, paid when you order. Its page sets out what it checks and who it is for.

Testing for inherited cancer risk is a screening test, not a diagnosis. A result with no variant found does not mean you will not develop cancer, and finding a variant does not mean you will. Talk to your doctor or a genetic counselor before making any decision about screening, medication or surgery.

Not today. Every order is self-pay, and we don’t ask for insurance details. Insurance billing for GenePGx is coming soon. GeneCore, the single Nutrigenomics tests, GeneBaby and Oral Health DNA are self-pay only: we don’t bill insurance for them.

Whether a health plan pays for a genetic test depends on the plan: plans have different policies about which tests they pay for.^[2] For a plan to pay, a clinician who is treating you usually has to order the test for a medical reason, and the plan’s own rules have to be met. A clinician’s order doesn’t guarantee that a plan will pay. For tests of how you process medicines, plans usually pay only for the genes linked to the medicine being decided, not for a whole panel.

• No claim to your plan. When you pay yourself, we don’t send a claim to your health insurance.
• Kept from your plan, if you ask. If you pay for an item or service in full yourself, the HIPAA Privacy Rule lets you ask a provider it covers not to share information about it with your health plan for payment or health care operations. The provider must agree, unless a law requires the disclosure.^[4]

Paying yourself? You can ask us not to share this test with your health plan. A self-pay payment usually doesn’t count toward your plan’s deductible.

GeneCore puts the diet, fitness and everyday-health areas in one report, for $499. Each of those areas is also sold on its own, as GeneDiet, GeneSport and GeneHealth. GeneResilience isn’t part of GeneCore. Choose by what you want to read about: one area, or all three together.

In the US, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), law since 2008, bars discrimination based on genetic information when deciding who can get health insurance and at what rates, or whether someone is suited to a job. It does not apply to life, disability or long-term care insurance, and it does not cover members of the military. Some states add protections of their own.^[3]

Your genetic data is never sold, and never shared for marketing or research. How we handle your data is set out on our privacy page.

Under the No Surprises Act rules, you count as uninsured or self-pay if you have no health coverage, or if you have health insurance (other than Medicare, Medicaid or another federal health program) but don’t ask for a claim for an item or service to be sent to it. Providers the rules cover must tell you that a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges is available, and treat any question about cost as a request for one.^[5]

Read our Good Faith Estimate notice. To ask for an estimate in a separate document, write to info@genematrix.io before you order.

• Whether a test fits your question. Check what a test looks at before you compare prices.
• Whether a result is the whole story. A test that checks selected variants can miss ones it doesn’t look for, so a result with nothing found doesn’t mean you have no risk.^[6]
• What to do next with a result. A genetic result isn’t a diagnosis. It is one piece of information to take to your clinician.

Not sure which test fits? Try Find your test, or compare every test. Questions about paying? Contact us.