UnitedHealthcare has expanded coverage to include medical device manufacturer Highridge Medical’s Tether, a vertebral body tethering system, effective April 1.
The payer now considers vertebral body tethering “medically necessary” when performed with the Tether system. UnitedHealthcare’s decision is expected to make the procedure accessible to more pediatric scoliosis patients nationwide, according to an April 1 company news release.
Highridge’s system is the first FDA-approved device for vertebral body tethering. It was granted a humanitarian device exemption in August 2019 based on over seven years of clinical data.
More than 3,000 children have received the device to date, with about 65 U.S. surgeons currently performing the procedure.
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