BCBS Excellus – (#2.02.57) Flow Cytometry (New Policy)Effective 7/21/2022

This new policy addresses flow cytometry, a technology that rapidly analyzes single cells or particles as they flow past single or multiple lasers while suspended in a prepared solution. Samples from blood, bone marrow, and solid tissue can be separated into single cells and analyzed for number, size, shape, viability, and granularity of the cells in the sample. With the advances in newly developed reagents and more sophisticated data analysis algorithms, flow cytometry has emerged as a powerful tool with applications for immunology, molecular biology, cancer biology, and infectious disease monitoring. Flow cytometry is considered medically appropriate for hematopoietic neoplasm evaluation and monitoring HIV infection monitoring, diagnosis of immunodeficiencies, paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), analysis of nuclear DNA to determine ploidy and cell cycle analysis from the gestational trophoblastic tissue, and for diagnosis of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), graft prognosis and therapeutic monitoring. It is also considered medically necessary to detect measurable residual disease (MRD) in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), or multiple myeloma (MM). https://www.excellusbcbs.com/documents/20152/127121/Flow+Cytometry.pdf/944a3a76-a8a1-96f0-e345-a25b03d724da?t=1660848708606

SOURCE: September 2022 Connection Provider Newsletter