Cigna Healthcare will provide national health insurance coverage to the Intracept Procedure, a minimally invasive low back pain treatment developed by Edina-based medical device company Relievant Medsystems Inc.
The coverage went into effect on Thursday, June 15, Relievant announced Tuesday.
Convincing insurers to cover a new device is a big win for a med-tech manufacturer. Though they can still sell their products without support from insurance companies, doing so would limit the market to patients willing to pay out-of-pocket for the device — which in turn limits the number of physicians who know the technology well enough to use it.
In a statement, Relievant Medsystems CEO Tyler Binney said the move by Cigna, one of the company's largest health insurers, "is vastly impactful in increasing patient and physician access to our proven treatment for vertebrogenic pain."
Getting insured by Cigna will expand Relievant's access to patients in all 50 states, as well as Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
The company's technology works by destroying a nerve embedded in vertebrae, stopping low back pain signals from being transmitted to the brain. Founded in 2006, it was based in Sunnyvale, Calif., until 2018, when it relocated to the Twin Cities.
The procedure takes about an hour; more than 10,000 patients have used the treatment, the company said, as it is the only FDA-cleared treatment for chronic vertebrogenic low back pain
Earlier this spring the company raised $50 million for the Intracept Procedure in series G financing. The company was founded in 2006 in Sunnyvale, Calif., but relocated to the Twin Cities in 2018.
