Benzinga | Dec 10, 2020 04:01PM EST

DermTech Reports Deal With Blue Shield Of California

DermTech, Inc. (NASDAQ:DMTK) ("DermTech"), a leader in precision dermatology enabled by a non-invasive skin genomics platform, announced today it has entered into an agreement, effective February 1, 2021, with Blue Shield of California for reimbursement coverage for all of its products. Blue Shield of California has approximately 3.7 million covered lives in California through its Commercial PPO/EPO, Medicare Advantage PPO, Commercial HMO and Medicare Advantage HMO programs.

DermTech's Pigmented Lesion Assay ("PLA") is the first non-invasive gene expression test for the early detection of melanoma. The PLA has a 99% negative predictive value (NPV), meaning there is a less than 1% probability of the PLA missing a melanoma when administered properly.

"This is the second large Blues plan we have contracted with in recent months. We are very encouraged to see our non-invasive genomic technology being adopted by large commercial payors. Many are beginning to recognize that our PLA test offers significant benefits in early melanoma detection and reduced biopsies of benign lesions, while also reducing overall costs to the healthcare system," said Dan Visage, Senior Vice President of Payor Access.