Guardant Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GH), announced that its market leading liquid biopsy, Guardant360®, will be a covered benefit for the members of the health plans associated with eviCore, a technology assessment company. The test will be considered medically necessary to assist in selecting therapy for patients with advanced lung cancer. When the eviCore policy becomes effective July 1, Guardant360 will have added coverage for over 38 million lives in 2019, including with Health Care Service Corporation in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas, Independence Blue Cross, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, and Government Employees Health Association/Federal Employees Program. This will increase total lung cancer coverage for Guardant360 to more than 150 million Americans, including for all Medicare beneficiaries, members of Cigna, Blue Shield of California, UPMC Health Plan, BCBS FEP (Federal Employees Program), and many others…
sorry, didn’t realize DB posted this earlier. I think the title of his thread “guarantee health” might have gotten auto-corrected and I didn’t put together that it was GH related.
This will increase total lung cancer coverage for Guardant360 to more than 150 million Americans
Correct me if I’m wrong but it seems like Guardiant is already becoming widely accepted/adapted in the marketplace despite still trying to get FDA approval? Is it typical for medical tests such as these to have such early on success signing on insurers? I tried getting comparisons with Exact Sciences Cologuard uptake but wasn’t really successful.
This morning, Merrill Lynch upgraded Guardant Health stock from “neutral” to “buy” and raised its price target on the $72 stock to $84 a share.
With pressure from the IPO lockup now past, Merrill muses that Guardant stock has a chance of rising again in the wake of positive LUNAR-1 data coming out of the American Association of Cancer Research meeting held earlier this month. Merrill also sees the potential for expanded commercial coverage of G360 liquid biopsies (LB) and a growing LB market in general.