Immersive therapy device company AppliedVR announced that Highmark, a Pittsburgh-based health insurer affiliated with Blue Cross Blue Shield, will become the first health insurance plan to cover AppliedVR’s FDA-cleared virtual reality product, RelieVRx, aimed at treating chronic back pain.
Highmark members age 18 and older who have been diagnosed with moderate to severe chronic back pain can receive a prescription for RelieVRx without prior authorization.
California-based AppliedVR’s RelieVRx (formerly EaseVRx) is a fully immersive virtual reality experience that aims to provide people with the skills they need to manage chronic back pain and non-pharmacological treatments to reduce pain.
At RelieVRx, patients will undergo a 56-session multimodal program that includes daily virtual reality sessions utilizing regulation and mindfulness skills, as well as cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help control symptoms.
“We are committed to leveraging technology to improve health outcomes while reducing costs,” Matt Fickey, senior medical director at Highmark, said in a statement. “AppliedVR’s RelieVRx offers members suffering from chronic back pain a scientifically-backed, immersive, in-home, non-opioid treatment option.”
Addressing the millions of people who suffer from chronic back pain, AppliedVR co-founder and CEO Matthew Staud said people battling back pain deserve access to non-invasive, drug-free options that allow them to self-manage their pain.
“Highmark’s pioneering approach recognizes the potential of immersive therapy, and we are grateful for their collaboration. RelieVRx is based on decades of clinical evidence demonstrating the transformative potential of immersive therapy to change the body’s response to pain, and we are committed to building an even larger body of evidence to continue setting the industry standard,” said Staud.
Larger trends
In April, Lovell Government Services partnered with AppliedVR to become a federal distribution partner, supporting sales through government health systems including the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Military Health System (MHS) and Indian Health Service (IHS).
In March, AppliedVR announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) had established a Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) Level II code (E1905) covering the company’s flagship RelieVRx program.
In February, AppliedVR and precision medicine company Kernal announced a collaboration to measure the impact of VR-assisted pain treatment on the brain. The single-blind, sham-controlled study design compared brain activation patterns and physiological metrics before, during, and after a VR experience in people with chronic back pain.
In August, Highmark announced that more than $800,000 in “BluePrints for the Community” grants had been awarded in the second quarter of 2024. The grants will address a variety of community needs, including improving access to health care and providing economic stability to individuals and families.
In July, Highmark Health Options West Virginia launched a managed care organization (MCO) serving West Virginians, as well as a Blue Cross Blue Shield-branded MCO.
