PriyaPatel
TLDR:
- Highmark Health is now covering digital treatments for chronic pain and other conditions for its patients.
- The insurer’s previous policy from 2022 covered eight FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics for its commercial plans.
Key Elements:
Highmark Health, a regional health insurer, has revamped its coverage policy to include digital treatments for chronic pain and other conditions, offering hope to digital therapeutics makers. This move marks a significant turning point for the health tech sector, which has been struggling to secure coverage from insurers.
Highmark initially issued a policy in 2022 covering eight FDA-cleared prescription digital therapeutics for individuals in its commercial plans. While this policy was seen as a positive step, the insurer highlighted that more administrative work was required before members could start benefiting from the coverage. Over the past two years, only a small number of digital treatments were paid for under this policy.
With the recent reboot of its coverage policy, Highmark is now providing coverage for digital treatments for chronic pain and other conditions for millions of its patients. This renewed focus on digital therapeutics by Highmark is expected to have a positive impact on the sector and may open doors for other insurers to follow suit in covering these innovative treatments.
