Quest Diagnostics

Quest’s pricing is largely set by multi-year payer contracts and Medicare’s CLFS. This caps unilateral pricing advances in routine testing.

However, pricing leverage exists in esoteric and proprietary assays (for example Alzheimer’s blood biomarkers and oncology MRD) and in consumer channels where out-of-pocket pricing can be tiered to perceived value.

The Guardant Shield collaboration for blood-based colorectal cancer screening and broader advanced diagnostics can lift blended ASPs over time. With CMS confirming no CLFS reduction in 2026 and phase-in caps shifted to 2027 to 2029, near-term reimbursement pressure is muted.

Still, structural buyer power limits broad-based price increases, so we weight execution on mix-shift rather than list-price hikes.