Cigna Expands Coverage for Home Phototherapy

Phothera recently announced that Cigna has updated its coverage policy to remove prior restrictions on home phototherapy, effective July 15, 2025. The decision expands access for Cigna’s 19.2 million covered individuals nationwide, allowing eligible members with psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo to pursue at-home treatment without the burden of coverage limitations.¹

The policy shift follows a similar move by Elevance Health/Anthem, which provides coverage for 47.5 million individuals. With both Cigna and Elevance now offering unrestricted coverage, more than 66.7 million insured Americans have expanded access to home phototherapy. This noninvasive treatment has been shown to achieve clearance or significant improvement in up to 80% of patients.

The implications are significant for patients and clinicians alike. In the US, approximately 8 million individuals live with psoriasis, more than 16 million with eczema, and an estimated 6.5 million with vitiligo. Many of these patients require ongoing phototherapy to manage symptoms and maintain quality of life. Expanded insurance coverage can help reduce barriers to care, particularly for patients who struggle with access to in-office treatments requiring 2 to 3 visits per week.

Financial considerations also play a key role. According to Phothera, these coverage decisions lower patient out-of-pocket costs by up to 90% and may reduce reliance on costly biologic drugs by enabling earlier intervention. For insurers, home phototherapy offers a cost-effective alternative, reducing annual treatment expenses by thousands of dollars per patient² when compared with systemic and biologic therapies.

Home Phototherapy Studies

The peer-reviewed LITE study (NCT03726489) highlights the value of home-based care, finding that home phototherapy provides equivalent efficacy to office-based treatment, approximately 3 times higher adherence, and the convenience of eliminating frequent clinic visits.²

Launched in 2019 and concluding in December 2023, the LITE study enrolled 783 patients across 42 dermatology practices in the United States. The study was an investigator-initiated, pragmatic, open-label, parallel-group, multicenter, noninferiority randomized clinical study, with special emphasis on patient feedback. Additionally, the study is the “result of a long-standing collaboration” between Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE; Kristina Callis Duffin, MD, MS; and the National Psoriasis Foundation.

“Traveling to obtain home phototherapy creates a significant barrier to getting treatment, even if they live a short distance away—people simply cannot leave home, work, or school for 2 hours 3 times per week. It’s not surprising that study participants assigned to the home phototherapy arm, who could use the device in their own home without driving or paying a co-pay each time, were less likely to miss treatments,” Duffin told Dermatology Times.

At baseline in the LITE study, the mean Physician Global Assessment score was 2.7, and the mean Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) score was 12.2. At week 12, a total of 129 patients (32.8%) receiving home-based phototherapy and 100 patients (25.6%) receiving office-based phototherapy achieved clear/almost clear skin, and 206 (52.4%) and 131 (33.6%) achieved a DLQI score of 5 or lower, respectively.

Looking Ahead

Craig Stout, president of Phothera, emphasized the importance of the change: “With both Cigna and Elevance now on board, this is a watershed moment for dermatologic care. Millions more patients can now receive proven, effective treatment in the comfort of their own home, without unnecessary cost or access barriers. We remain committed to ensuring cost is never a barrier to treatment, working directly with insurance providers for coverage and offering financial assistance to eligible patients.”

For dermatology clinicians, the expanded payer support may encourage broader integration of home phototherapy into treatment algorithms, particularly for patients with chronic inflammatory or pigmentary disorders requiring long-term disease management.

References

1. Cigna expands coverage for home phototherapy — no restrictions. News release. Phothera. August 20, 2025. Accessed September 10, 2025. https://www.phothera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Cigna-Expands-Coverage-for-Home-Phototherapy-—-No-Restrictions.pdf
2. Gelfand JM, Armstrong AW, Lim HW, et al. Home- vs office-based narrowband UV-B phototherapy for patients with psoriasis: the LITE randomized clinical trial. JAMA Dermatol. 2024;160(12):1320-1328. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2024.3897