Abiomed Announces Several Reimbursement Milestones

• Four Commercial Insurers Institute Broad Impella Coverage
• Impella Economic Study Published in The Journal of Managed Care Medicine (JMCM)

DANVERS, Mass., March 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Abiomed, Inc. (Nasdaq:ABMD), a leading provider of breakthrough heart support technologies, today provided a reimbursement update. Abiomed announced several recent Impella coverage decisions from national payers including Humana, UnitedHealthcare, Independence Blue Cross and Capital BlueCross. The recently updated coverage decisions include new Impella policies in the payers' commercial and/or Medicare Advantage plans.

Additionally, an economic study on the use of percutaneous ventricular assist devices (pVAD) was published in the February edition of The Journal of Managed Care Medicine ( JMCM), "A Budget Impact Model to Estimate the Cost Dynamics of Treating High-Risk Heart Failure Patients with Advanced Percutaneous Cardiac Assist Devices: The Payer Perspective."

The study developed a Budget Impact Model (BIM) to estimate the annual direct medical costs of treatment and the combined incremental budget impact of introducing a pVAD treatment option. A BIM is a standard approach used by most commercial payers today to assess impact on their spend per member. The study concluded that the per-member per-month (PMPM) impact of the use of pVADS in very challenging patient populations was minimal throughout the technology adoption curve and that patients did not require expensive readmissions for hospital care.

"In this era of healthcare reform, these models help identify the most effective and efficient ways to manage patients, particularly patients with the potential to generate significant costs if not managed properly," said David Gregory, MPA, FACHE, author of the study and Executive Vice President and Partner, Presscott Associates - A Division of ParenteBeard, LLC.

"New clinical guidelines, coupled with clinical and economic studies like this, are all paving the way for Impella to become the new standard of care," said Michael R. Minogue, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Abiomed

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