State and School Employees' Health Insurance Plan - Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko)

POLICY NUMBER

S.5.01.588

Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko) injection

Please perform a search of the State Health Plan Medical Drug Formulary for drugs administered and billed through the medical setting.

DESCRIPTION

Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko) is indicated for the add-on maintenance treatment of adult and pediatric individuals aged 12 years and older with severe asthma. Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko) is not for relief of acute bronchospasm or status asthmaticus.

POLICY

Tezspire (tezepelumab-ekko) is considered not medically necessary as there are other options covered by the Plan for add-on maintenance treatment of severe asthma.

Services related to delivery and/or administration of a medication determined to be not medically necessary will also be considered not medically necessary.

POLICY EXCEPTIONS

State Health Plan (State and School Employees): Self-administered drugs may be covered under a prescription drug benefit plan administered by the State Health Plan’s Pharmacy Benefit Manager. Please perform a formulary drug search at https://www.dfa.ms.gov/cvs-caremark and submit any required Prior Authorization Requests for coverage determination to the Plan’s Pharmacy Benefit Manager. Services related to delivery and/or administration of a self-administered drug are not covered under the medical benefit.

POLICY GUIDELINES

Medical Policy Manual coverage guidelines should not be used in lieu of the Participant's specific benefit plan language outlined in the Mississippi's State and School Employees’ Life and Health Insurance Plan.

Medically Necessary is defined as those services, treatments, procedures, equipment, drugs, devices, items or supplies furnished by a covered Provider that are required to identify or treat a Participant’s illness, injury or Mental Health Disorders, and which Company determines are covered under this Benefit Plan based on the criteria as follows in A through D:

A. consistent with the symptoms or diagnosis and treatment of the Participant’s condition, illness, or injury; and

B. appropriate with regard to standards of good medical practice; and

C. not solely for the convenience of the Participant, his or her Provider; and

D. the most appropriate supply or level of care which can safely be provided to the Participant. When applied to the care of an Inpatient, it further means that services for the Participant’s medical symptoms or conditions require that the services cannot be safely provided to the Participant as an Outpatient.

For the definition of medical necessity, “standards of good medical practice” means standards that are based on credible scientific evidence published in peer-reviewed medical literature generally recognized by the relevant medical community, and physician specialty society recommendations, and the views of medical practitioners practicing in relevant clinical areas and any other relevant factors. BCBSMS makes no payment for services, treatments, procedures, equipment, drugs, devices, items or supplies which are not documented to be Medically Necessary. The fact that a Physician or other Provider has prescribed, ordered, recommended, or approved a service or supply does not in itself, make it Medically Necessary.

BCBSMS may request medical records for determination of medical necessity. When medical records are requested, letters of support and/or explanation are often useful, but are not sufficient documentation unless all specific information needed to make a medical necessity determination is included.

Investigative is defined as the use of any treatment procedure, facility, equipment, drug, device, or supply not yet recognized as a generally accepted standard of good medical practice for the treatment of the condition being treated and; therefore, is not considered medically necessary. For the definition of Investigative, “generally accepted standards of medical practice” means standards that are based on credible scientific evidence published in peer-reviewed medical literature generally recognized by the relevant medical community, and physician specialty society recommendations, and the views of medical practitioners practicing in relevant clinical areas and any other relevant factors. In order for equipment, devices, drugs or supplies [i.e, technologies], to be considered not investigative, the technology must have final approval from the appropriate governmental bodies, and scientific evidence must permit conclusions concerning the effect of the technology on health outcomes, and the technology must improve the net health outcome, and the technology must be as beneficial as any established alternative and the improvement must be attainable outside the testing/investigational setting.

POLICY HISTORY

07/01/2023: New policy added.

12/16/2024: Policy reviewed and approved by Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee. Policy description updated to include generic drug name. Policy statement updated to change "(tezepelumab)" to "(tezepelumab-ekko)." Sources updated.

12/02/2025: Policy reviewed and approved by the Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Committee. Sources updated.

SOURCE(S)

Tezspire prescribing information. Amgen, Inc. May 2023. Last accessed September 2025.

CODE REFERENCE

This may not be a comprehensive list of procedure codes applicable to this policy.

Not Medically Necessary Codes

CPT copyright American Medical Association. All rights reserved. CPT is a registered trademark of the American Medical Association.