AppliedVR, an immersive therapeutics firm, introduced that Pittsburgh-based Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Protect-affiliated well being insurer, would be the first well being plan to cowl RelieVRx, AppliedVR’s FDA-cleared digital actuality providing to deal with continual low again ache.
Eligible Highmark members 18 years and older identified with reasonable to extreme continual low again ache will be capable to get a prescription for RelieVRx with out prior authorization.
California-based AppliedVR’s RelieVRx (previously EaseVRx) is a totally immersive digital actuality expertise supposed to empower folks with the abilities wanted to handle continual low again ache and a non-pharmacologic possibility to cut back ache.
With RelieVRx, sufferers undergo a 56-session multimodal program that features every day digital actuality periods that make the most of regulation and mindfulness abilities, in addition to methods from cognitive behavioral remedy to assist them management their signs.
“We’re dedicated to leveraging know-how to boost well being outcomes whereas lowering prices,” Matt Fickie, senior medical director for Highmark, stated in a press release. “RelieVRx from AppliedVR offers our members affected by continual low again ache a scientifically backed, in-home immersive non-opioid remedy possibility.”
Addressing the hundreds of thousands of people that expertise continual low again ache, AppliedVR cofounder and chief govt officer Matthew Stoudt stated that people who battle low again ache deserve entry to noninvasive, drug-free choices that empower them to self-manage their ache.
“Highmark’s forward-thinking method acknowledges the promise of immersive therapeutics, and we’re grateful for his or her collaboration. RelieVRx is predicated on a long time of medical proof demonstrating the transformative potential of immersive therapeutics to reshape the physique’s response to ache, and we’re dedicated to constructing a good better physique of proof that continues to set the trade customary,” Stoudt stated.
THE LARGER TREND
In April, Lovell Authorities Companies partnered with AppliedVR to be its federal distribution companion to assist gross sales via authorities healthcare programs just like the Veterans Well being Administration (VHA), the Army Well being System (MHS), and Indian Well being Companies (IHS).
In March, AppliedVR introduced that the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies (CMS) established a Healthcare Frequent Process Coding System (HCPCS) Degree II code (E1905) that covers its flagship product, the RelieVRx program.
In February, AppliedVR and Kernal, a precision drugs firm, introduced a joint research measuring the affect of VR ache remedy on the mind. The one-blind, sham-controlled design in contrast mind activation patterns and physiological metrics earlier than, throughout and after VR experiences in folks experiencing continual low again ache.
In August, Highmark introduced that greater than $800,000 in “BluePrints for the Neighborhood” grants had been awarded for Q2 2024. The grants deal with numerous neighborhood wants, together with bettering entry to healthcare and offering financial stability to people and households.
In July, Highmark Well being Choices West Virginia launched a managed care group (MCO) and the primary Blue Cross Blue Protect-branded MCO to serve West Virginians.
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