NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – CardioDx today announced that national Medicare contractor Palmetto GBA will cover the company's Corus CAD gene expression test for coronary artery disease.
Since launching Corus CAD as a laboratory-developed test in 2009, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based cardiovascular genomics testing firm has been collecting clinical utility and cost data to expand insurance reimbursement of the test, which is used to determine which patients have or don't have CAD.
In May 2011, CardioDx raised $60 million in private financing to fund research to back up its push for expanded reimbursement of its test.
Corus CAD has been clinically validated in two prospective, multicenter US trials, PREDICT and COMPASS, while additional studies have demonstrated that the test changed patient management decisions in both primary care and cardiology practices.
The Palmetto decision makes Corus CAD a covered benefit for more than 40 million Medicare enrollees in the US.
CardioDx CEO David Levison said in a statement that the coverage decision will enable Medicare patients to "avoid unnecessary procedures and risks associated with cardiac imaging and elective invasive angiography, while helping payers address an area of significant health care spend."
Levison told GenomeWeb Daily News that the company is now planning to focus on increasing adoption of the test by clinicians and continuing to build coverage by private payors.