Positive News For BioTelemetry Courtesy Of Blue Cross Blue Shield; Shares Up 15%

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield now covers MCT for its roughly 36 million beneficiaries, effective October 4, for individuals who have a history of cryptogenic stroke and have had a previous non-diagnostic trial of external ambulatory event monitoring.

The news is good for the company, which provides products and services for the continuous, real-time, ambulatory monitoring of patient health information.

Related Link: BioTelemetry Agrees To License Proprietary Tech To Bloom For Use In Prenatal Market

"The news is a major positive for BioTelemetry, who will likely gain several million dollars in revenue in 2017 as a result of being able to access this large patient base," analyst Bruce Jackson wrote in a note.

Jackson estimates revenue from Anthem between $5 million and $25 million depending on how tightly the new coverage policy is deployed and the amount of market share BioTelemetry can capture.

Moreover, the analyst said the additional revenue could now offset BioTelemetry's potential modest drop in revenue growth after a strong 2016 that was partly driven by a one-time increase in the Medicare reimbursement rates.

Jackson's bullish thesis on BioTelemetry is based on strong domestic revenue, steady underlying unit growth, benign reimbursement climate and potential gross margin expansion in 2017 from volume efficiencies and launch of patch devices.

"With an expanding backlog for its research services business, new products like Cardiokey and new patient services like INR monitoring, we think the company can continue to generate above trend revenue growth into 2017," Jackson added.

At last check, BioTelemetry was up 15.57 percent at $21.18.

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