Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc. Announces Positive Coverage Policy by Cigna Healthcare for Barricaid Bone-Anchored Annular Closure Device

BOSTON, June 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc., a medical device company focused on preventing reherniation and reoperation following lumbar discectomy, announced today that Cigna Healthcare has issued a positive coverage policy for the Barricaid® Bone-Anchored Annular Closure device. Cigna Healthcare represents one of the five largest commercial payors in the US, with an estimated nineteen million covered lives.

Intrinsic Therapeutics founder Greg Lambrecht stated, "Twenty years ago I set out to find a solution to save others from the heartbreak I witnessed with my mother's failed spinal operations. This new coverage policy will give Cigna members access to the Barricaid technology and help to reduce the burden of reherniation and reoperation for discectomy patients when deemed medically necessary by their surgeon."

Betsy Grunch MD, FAANS, FACS, a board-certified neurosurgeon at The Longstreet Clinic in Gainesville, Georgia, said of the policy, "This is the culmination of years of clinical research and the publication of compelling clinical evidence supporting Barricaid's efficacy. Now I can offer my patients with large annular defects a treatment to avoid problems with reherniations. I applaud Cigna's rigorous clinical review and their decision to issue this positive policy. I expect other payors to update and cover Barricaid following the recent publication of additional data."

Cigna Healthcare's expanded coverage policy went into effect on June 15, 2023, and will enable discectomy patients with large annular defects access to Barricaid, which is indicated to reduce reherniation and reoperations in this patient population.

About Intrinsic Therapeutics
Barricaid is a proprietary technology designed to prevent reherniation and reoperation in patients with large annular defects following lumbar discectomy surgery.  Barricaid has been implanted in more than ten thousand patients and is supported by clinical studies in 8 distinct patient populations, including two randomized controlled trials and six single armed trials. A multicenter level I RCT demonstrating superior outcomes to discectomy alone with 5-year results was published in JAMA.

In 2019, Barricaid received FDA Pre-Market Approval, in 2020 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a C-code for hospitals and surgery centers to report for billing and payment, and in late 2022 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued ICD-10 codes to track and monitor defect size in discectomy patients. 

For full benefit-risk information, please visit www.Barricaid.com 

Media Contact:
Jake Tanner, VP of Marketing
760-525-9739
[email protected]

Barricaid is a registered trademark of Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc.

SOURCE Intrinsic Therapeutics, Inc.