The following policies were recently reviewed for annual update. The full texts of these policies are available in the Provider section of bcbsri.com:

• Autografts and Allografts in the Treatment of Focal Articular Cartilage Lesions
• Colorectal Screening Mandate
• Coordination of Benefits
• Coverage of Complications Following a Non-Covered Service
• Electrical and Electromagnetic Stimulation for the Treatment of Arthritis
• Electrical Bone Growth Stimulation of the Appendicular Skeletal-Implantable and Semi-Implantable
• Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP) 
• Gene Expression Profiling for Cutaneous Melanoma
• Image-Guided Minimally Invasive Lumbar Decompression for Spinal Stenosis
• Implantable Bone-Conduction and Bone-Anchored Hearing Aids
• Intra-articular Hyaluronan Injections for Osteoarthritis
• Intraocular Radiotherapy for Age-Related Macular Degeneration
• Optical Coherence Tomography of the Anterior Eye Segment
• Out-of-Network Services Requests
• Semi-Implantable and Fully-Implantable Middle Ear Hearing Aid – Insertion

We also post monthly drafts of medical policies being created or reassessed for your review. As a reminder, you can provide comments on draft policies for up to 30 days. Draft policies are located on the Provider homepage, under the Medical Policies section, under the drop-down “Draft Medical Policies."