NEW YORK (360Dx) — Vermillion said on Thursday that its OVA1 ovarian cancer test will now receive preferred coverage from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona as an in-network covered test.
OVA1 is a proteomic test that is meant to help doctors evaluate whether a patient with a pelvic mass is at high risk of having ovarian cancer and should be referred to a gynecologic oncologist for surgery.
With the addition of the two payors' six million customers, the OVA1 test is now covered for a total of 167 million people, Austin, Texas-based Vermillion said.
"We are very pleased to move two significant health plans, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, to in-network agreements," Vermillion CEO Valerie Palmieri said in a statement. "We believe we are well on our way to establishing OVA1 as the standard of care for ovarian cancer risk assessment, and we are very encouraged by physician and patient feedback from our early commercialization efforts."
Earlier this year, Cigna added OVA1 — which was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration as an in vitro diagnostic multivariate index assay in 2009 — to its national preferred coverage list.