Heart Valve Voice US is a patient advocacy organization focused on improving the diagnosis, management and treatment of heart valve disease. We understand Anthem is in the process of reconsidering its current misguided policy of not covering innovative transcatheter valve procedures, such as TAVR for low-risk patients and TEER/TMVR.
To the best of our knowledge, all other major private insurers, as well as Medicare, cover these procedures, per the preponderance of research that supports the treatments, as well as the most recent guidelines from the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association.
Anthem’s lack of coverage for these innovative transcatheter therapies is especially perplexing in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. By directing patients to open heart surgery, Anthem is exposing them to, typically, three or four days of hospitalization, more time in ICU, and significantly longer recovery times. By contrast, procedures like TAVR, in addition to being less invasive, generally require only an overnight hospital stay and we are seeing many procedures being done on an outpatient basis to minimize
patient exposure and risk during this pandemic.
Read More Of Our Letter To Anthem Here:
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