iRhythm Technologies, a healthcare information services company, today announced that Aetna, the third largest health plan in the United States, has issued a positive coverage policy for long-term continuous monitoring of patients with suspected heart arrhythmias, which includes use of the ZIO Service. The new policy now makes iRhythm's solution - comprised of the ZIO Patch, proprietary algorithms and the ZIO report - available as a potential covered service for the insurer's medical members.

"This new policy further reinforces the clinical validity and clinical utility of using the ZIO Service for long-term continuous monitoring of patients with suspected heart arrhythmias," said Kevin King, president and chief executive officer of iRhythm. "We are pleased that Aetna's members can now benefit from this coverage, which we believe will help improve patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs."

Each year, millions of patients present with infrequent and non-specific symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness and shortness of breath, which may or may not be caused by cardiac arrhythmias. Physicians typically seek to identify which patients have an arrhythmia and which do not to enable timely, efficient treatment that can help avoid potentially serious complications and can reduce unnecessary medical visits. Effective management of cardiac arrhythmias is specific to the type of arrhythmia identified. Arrhythmias, however, are often difficult to diagnose using current monitoring techniques, such as the 50-year-old Holter monitor, which are limited in what they can record or can be difficult for patients to use or tolerate.

Multiple, peer-reviewed published studies have demonstrated the ZIO Service's ability to produce a higher diagnostic yield and change patient management, compared to traditional approaches to ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring.