Great news this morning - signals increased acceptance and widening of usage:
Interpace Diagnostics Announces Increased Reimbursement for ThyGenX®
GlobeNewswire•October 11, 2017Comment
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Oct. 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc. (IDXG) (“Interpace” or “the Company”), a fully integrated commercial company that provides clinically useful molecular diagnostic tests and pathology services for improved patient diagnosis and management, announced today that reimbursement for its ThyGenX® molecular test for indeterminate thyroid nodules will increase by 40% starting January 1, 2018.
Medicare has covered ThyGenX since 2015, and in January 2016, Medicare initiated coverage of ThyraMIR®, the Company’s miRNA-based product. Overall, Medicare represents approximately 40% of the Company’s volume for the ThyGenX test; given the Company’s recent announcements of coverage for ThyGenX among numerous commercial health plans, the overall payer mix for the remainder of the volume has improved significantly since 2016. These commercial plans include Cigna, Aetna, United Healthcare, and Oxford. Including Medicare, the total number of covered lives for Interpace’s ThyGenX molecular test for indeterminate thyroid nodules is now approximately 275 million patients nationwide.
ThyGenX utilizes state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing (NGS) to identify more than 100 genetic alterations associated with papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas, the two most common forms of thyroid cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, thyroid cancer is the most rapidly increasing cancer in the U.S., tripling in the past three decades. Most physicians have traditionally recommended thyroid surgery where thyroid nodule biopsy results are indeterminate, not clearly benign or malignant following traditional cytopathology review; however, over 70% of these surgical outcomes are ultimately benign. Molecular testing using ThyGenX has been shown to reduce the rate of unnecessary surgeries in indeterminate cases.
Jack E. Stover, President and CEO of Interpace Diagnostics stated, “We are pleased that Medicare has recognized the value ThyGenX provides to both physicians and their patients as we continue to make strides in improving reimbursement.”
