Charité coverage
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Cigna is the latest major payer to cover Johnson & Johnson/DePuy Spine's Charité artificial lumbar disc, the firm announces July 25. Cigna, which provides health insurance to 47 million people, joins Kaiser Permanente and Aetna, among others, who cover use of the device to treat degenerative disc disease. CMS and other payers' hesitance to cover the device, particularly due to lack of long-term follow-up data, has slowed acceptance of the procedure in the United States (1"The Gray Sheet" June 4, 2007, p. 5). DePuy says five-year Charité data is expected to be published this year...