AppliedVR, an immersive therapeutics firm, introduced that Pittsburgh-based Highmark, a Blue Cross Blue Defend-affiliated well being insurer, would be the first well being plan to cowl RelieVRx, AppliedVR’s FDA-cleared digital actuality providing to deal with power low again ache.
Eligible Highmark members 18 years and older identified with average to extreme power low again ache will be capable of 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 individuals with the abilities wanted to handle power low again ache and a non-pharmacologic choice to scale back ache.
With RelieVRx, sufferers undergo a 56-session multimodal program that features each day digital actuality periods that make the most of regulation and mindfulness expertise, in addition to strategies from cognitive behavioral remedy to assist them management their signs.
“We’re dedicated to leveraging know-how to reinforce well being outcomes whereas decreasing prices,” Matt Fickie, senior medical director for Highmark, stated in an announcement. “RelieVRx from AppliedVR supplies our members affected by power low again ache a scientifically backed, in-home immersive non-opioid remedy choice.”
Addressing the hundreds of thousands of people that expertise power low again ache, AppliedVR cofounder and chief government 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 relies 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 business customary,” Stoudt stated.
THE LARGER TREND
In April, Lovell Authorities Providers partnered with AppliedVR to be its federal distribution companion to help gross sales by means of authorities healthcare programs just like the Veterans Well being Administration (VHA), the Army Well being System (MHS), and Indian Well being Providers (IHS).
In March, AppliedVR introduced that the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers (CMS) established a Healthcare Widespread Process Coding System (HCPCS) Degree II code (E1905) that covers its flagship product, the RelieVRx program.
In February, AppliedVR and Kernal, a precision medication firm, introduced a joint research measuring the affect of VR ache remedy on the mind. The only-blind, sham-controlled design in contrast mind activation patterns and physiological metrics earlier than, throughout and after VR experiences in individuals experiencing power low again ache.
In August, Highmark introduced that greater than $800,000 in “BluePrints for the Group” grants had been awarded for Q2 2024. The grants handle varied 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 Defend-branded MCO to serve West Virginians.
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