Medical researchers call it the "Angelina Effect," the surge in demand for genetic testing attributable to movie star Angelina Jolie's public crusade for more aggressive detection of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

But there's a catch: Major insurance companies including Aetna, Anthem and Cigna are declining to pay for the latest generation of tests, known as multi-gene panel tests, Reuters has learned. The insurers say that the tests are unproven and may lead patients to seek out medical care they don't need.

That's a dangerous miscalculation, a range of doctors, genetic counselors, academics and diagnostics companies said. While they acknowledge that multi-gene tests produce data that may not be useful from a diagnostic standpoint, they say that by refusing or delaying coverage, insurance companies are endangering patients who could be undergoing screenings or changing their diets if they knew about the possible risks.

The tests have come a long way since Jolie, 39, went public in 2013, revealing that she underwent a double mastectomy after a genetic test found she carried mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, indicating a high risk of breast and ovarian cancer. She disclosed last month that she had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.

The new panel tests, which can cost between $2,000 to $4,900, analyze 20 or more genes at once. That allows healthcare professionals to establish possible DNA links to other cancer-related conditions such as Lynch syndrome and Li-Fraumeni Syndrome earlier. Humans have about 23,000 genes.

Susan Kutner, a surgeon at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in San Jose, California, who serves on a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on young women and breast cancer, said more women with a family history of cancer should be able get these tests.

"If we have members who are not being tested in a timely manner, we know that their risk of cancer in the long run costs us and them a lot more," Kutner said.

Kaiser, which insures its own members, covers panel tests for patients with family histories of cancer.

That's not so at three of the four largest managed care companies. Aetna Inc, Anthem Inc and Cigna Corp state in their policies that in most cases they don't cover multi-gene panel tests. The fourth, UnitedHealth Group, covers the tests if patients meet certain criteria.

All insurers cover screenings for BRCA1 and BRCA2 and for certain other genes for women who have family histories of cancer. Indeed, such coverage is mandated by the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

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Aetna, Cigna balk as Angelina effect spurs genetic cancer testing

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