The physician-ordered testing model has served specialty labs well. A physician identifies a clinical need, orders the test, the patient schedules a collection, and the specimen moves through the lab's processing workflow to a result.
That model has inherent limits.
Not every patient who would benefit from advanced diagnostic testing has a physician who has ordered it from them. Not every patient seeking answers about their cancer risk, cardiac health, or genetic profile will navigate the clinical referral pathway before pursuing it. And as consumer healthcare continues to shift toward self-directed health management, the gap between tests that exist and patients who can access them through non-clinical channels is widening.
MAPRx opens a second channel.
MAPRx is a retail distribution program, powered by MOMS, that places specialty lab tests directly at independent pharmacy locations — available to patients on a cash-pay, direct-access basis with no physician order, no insurance authorization, and no specialist referral standing between the patient and the test.
Patients encounter available tests at the pharmacy counter the same way they encounter other health products — at their neighborhood pharmacy, at a price they can pay directly. Some tests are available for pickup at the counter. Others require a brief blood draw, which patients can schedule at a participating MAP location through the MOMS platform.
For specialty labs, MAPRx represents a distribution channel that operates in parallel with — not instead of — the clinical ordering model. The same test, the same result, a different access pathway.
GRAIL's Galleri® multi-cancer early detection test is currently live on MAPRx. One blood draw. Screens for signals associated with more than 50 types of cancer. Available at participating pharmacy locations for direct cash pay.
For a test designed to detect cancer signals early in people without symptoms, the MAPRx channel addresses a patient behavior reality: people who want proactive health information are often not waiting for a physician to order it. They're looking for it where they already go for health products — the pharmacy.
Galleri® is available at participating pharmacy locations through MAPRx now. Learn more and find out if you qualify at https://www.myonemedicalsource.com/maprx
For specialty labs evaluating MAPRx as a distribution channel, the commercial argument rests on a few realities of the current healthcare consumer market.
First: the patient population that actively seeks advanced diagnostic testing is growing. Consumer health spending on direct-pay testing has expanded significantly as patients become more willing to pay out-of-pocket for health information that matters to them.
Second: the pharmacy is a trusted, high-frequency access point. Patients visit their neighborhood pharmacy more often than they visit their physician's office. Tests available at the pharmacy counter reach patients in a context where they're already thinking about their health.
Third: MAPRx is powered by MOMS, which means the collection infrastructure, credentialing, training, and compliance requirements that specialty labs rely on through the MAP network are the same infrastructure supporting necessary MAPRx collections. A test on MAPRx is collected by a trained, credentialed MAP — the same standard a lab would expect from any MOMS-connected collection.
In addition to cancer screening through Galleri®, MAPRx is expanding to include test offerings covering many areas of healthcare.
Labs interested in participating in the MAPRx program can contact MOMS to learn more about the offering.