LifeWise offers plans under the brand name Premera Blue Cross in Alaska and Washington State, as well as its LifeWise Health Plans of Oregon and LifeWise Health Plans of Washington.
LifeWise’s policy changes extend STAR ankle coverage to more than 92% or 161 million privately insured health plan members in the U.S.
This includes major private insurers such as all BlueCross and BlueShield Association member companies, Aetna, Cigna, Coventry and others.
Almost all of the 100 million eligible individuals covered by governmental insurance programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE also have access to the STAR ankle, as well as most individuals covered by state workers’ compensation programs.
According to SBi, the STAR ankle is the only total ankle replacement system (TAR) cleared through the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) rigorous pre-market approval process (PMA).
The STAR ankle’s safety and effectiveness was compared with ankle fusion in a multi-center, multi-year, investigational device exemption (IDE) study.
The study results published in 2009 supported the only PMA order to be issued by the FDA for a total ankle joint replacement by demonstrating the STAR to be superior in efficacy and comparable in safety to fusion.
