NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – NantHealth said today that three self-insured employers — Bank of America, Phoenix Children's Hospital, and Sanford Health — have agreed to cover its GPS Cancer test for some cancers.
GPS Cancer is a comprehensive test that includes whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing, as well as proteomics to molecularly profile cancer patients' tumors in order to inform treatment.
NantHealth launched the test in March and runs it out of NantOmics' CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory. NantHealth and NantOmics are both subsidiaries of NantWorks. NantHealth did not disclose the price of GPS Cancer or how much of the test cost the three self-insured companies were reimbursing.
According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, NantHealth has an exclusive reseller agreement with NantOmics through the end of 2020 to purchase GPS Cancer at a discount to market price. NantHealth then sells the test to health providers.
Earlier this week, NantHealth filed for an initial public offering.
In January, NantHealth said it had inked a deal with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Independence Blue Cross. In a statement, Independence Blue Cross CEO Daniel Hilferty said that it is "actively working with Blue Cross plans across the nation as they consider supporting this next generation of care."
Phoenix Children's Hospital and Sanford Health are also part of NantWorks' Pediatrics Consortium arm of Cancer MoonShot 2020, which aims to study the genomics and proteomics of pediatric cancer patients' tumors in order to design personalized treatments.
Robert Meyer, president and CEO of Phoenix Children's Hospital, said in a statement that "as a hospital dedicated to providing the most advanced care, it only makes sense that we would cover the innovative GPS Cancer testing for our employees and their families under our insurance plan."
Sanford Health's executive vice president Richard Adcock added that the company is "dedicated to offering our employees affordable and accessible high-quality care."
Bank of America, which covers around 500,000 employees, has been working with NantHealth for the last five years, Jim Huffman, senior vice president and head of US health and wellness benefits at Bank of America, said in a statement, adding that the firm adopted GPS Cancer because it was "the most comprehensive test to help inform the oncologists taking care of its employees and families diagnosed with cancer."