When you’re living with an ongoing injury or illness, any breakthrough treatment that may help looks like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but that doesn’t mean that the treatment in question is immediately going to be covered by your insurance. So you’re faced with the question of how to pay for stem cell therapy.
This is true even for options like stem cell therapy, which is growing in popularity. Thankfully, as more results and studies dive into this innovative new treatment, more patients can be treated by stem cell therapy and have their insurance cover the treatment – but it’s not yet universal.
Any medical treatment, particularly technology-intensive options like stem cell treatments, comes at a high cost. That’s why it’s absolutely natural to wonder if your insurance will cover it. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of the biggest names in the United States, but does Blue Cross Blue Shield cover stem cell therapy? Let’s get into it:
First, What is Stem Cell Therapy?
If you’re wondering what are stem cells and how do they work, you won’t be alone. Stem cells are best thought of as the building blocks of cells, but, confusingly, there are actually many different kinds and types of treatment.
The reason why it’s important to understand the difference between them is that the answer to whether your health insurance will cover your treatment depends on the type of stem cells used, as well as the condition they are treating.
Here at Bioxcellerator, we primarily use Wharton’s Jelly Mesenchymal stem cells (WJ-MSCs). These cells are taken from donated umbilical cords, screened, processed, and stored in cryo for treatment. They’re chosen specifically because they don’t contain surface proteins, which means they are more likely to be accepted by the patient’s body.
Thanks to this adaptability, our stem cell treatments can be used for a wide variety of conditions, and can especially help those who ran out of treatment options in the past. Now, there are very promising results from WJ-MSC treatments, but the long-term studies are still ongoing, meaning they don’t currently have FDA approval. You can still get these treatments legally, but whether you can get insurance cover for stem cell therapy is another story.
How Does Stem Cell Therapy Work?
Stem cell therapy works in a few ways. It may act as an anti-inflammatory, as well as rejuvenating cells by kickstarting repair. If you’re asking yourself, what are stem cell injections? Are they safe? Then you should know that the treatment is not only safe, but it’s also relatively painless.
Once the stem cell transplantation has happened, it’s up to your body to accept them. If they are accepted, the stem cells have the possibility of becoming the type of cells needed to help the repair process. Bone marrow stem cells, for example, can become blood cells through this treatment.
Patients may see results a few weeks after treatment, a few months, or even years, depending on the type of condition and its severity. If stem cell therapy does work for you, then you can notice a significant decrease in pain, discomfort, inflammation, and more.
Now, onto the big question: Does Blue Cross Blue Shield cover stem cell therapy injections?
Does Blue Cross Blue Shield Cover Stem Cell Therapy?
It’s time for us to answer the all-important question – does blue cross blue shield cover stem cell therapy? Can you use it to pay for stem cell therapy? When it comes to any treatment plan, a big concern for many is whether their health insurance will cover their treatment. After all, most cannot afford health care in the United States without insurance covering at least a portion of the cost.
If you’ve been reading up on stem cell therapy, and were hoping that your Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance would simply cover stem cell therapy, then unfortunately that is unlikely to be the case.
Blue Cross Blue Shield does cover stem cell treatments for blood and bone marrow diseases. This treatment type is more frequently known as a bone marrow transplant, and it uses the patient’s own cells in order to help treat blood cancers like leukemia.
Outside of those instances, however, it’s unlikely that your insurance will cover your treatment.
Why Doesn’t Blue Cross Blue Shield Cover More Conditions?
The simple reason why insurance companies don’t cover more uses of stem cell treatments is that the studies just aren’t there yet. It’s a very new medicine, and the long-term studies and clinical trials have yet to come out with their findings.
It’s also important to note that stem cell research is constantly evolving, too. For example, scientists have found a way to develop induced pluripotent stem cells. What this means is that we can now genetically reprogram stem cells to their embryonic state (meaning they can become many different kinds of cells, rather than just a few) without using embryo cells.
Even WJ-MSCs are a new development in stem cell research. With each new development, studies need to be conducted with control subjects (meaning they receive a placebo) who must be monitored over a long period of time.
For some conditions, results don’t really appear up to a year later. This is because it takes time for stem cells to become new cells and for them to replicate enough that you notice a significant difference. With such a long potential time frame, clinical trials simply take a long time.
Until then, stem cell treatments for conditions like arthritis, chronic pain, or even spinal issues will need to be out of pocket.
What’s the Out-of-Pocket Cost of Stem Cell Therapy?
The stem cell therapy cost, when paid for out of pocket, can run up into the tens of thousands. This is a hefty sum for stem cell transplantation, but the good news is that, after your round or rounds of treatment, you typically don’t need to go back for more (unless you have another condition you want treated).
Our centers also offer payment plans, allowing those who want stem cell transplantation but have conditions that aren’t covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield, to get the injections they want. You can learn more by having a look at the locations we cover and getting in touch with your nearest clinic.
