Appeal type: Medical necessity
Decision: Upheld

Diagnosis: Idiopathic Short Stature
Treatment: Norditropin injection
The insurer denied the Norditropin injection.
The determination is upheld.

The patient was diagnosed with idiopathic short stature (ISS). This request is for Norditropin. As reported, he started growth hormone (GH) therapy and is taking 1.4 milligrams (mg) of Omnitrope. His GH stimulation test with arginine and glucagon peaked at 10. His height velocity is reported to be improved from 4.9 centimeters per year (cm/yr) to 5.99 cm/yr. His testes were 3 cubic centimeters (cc) bilaterally and pubic hair was Tanner 1.
His weight was 38.3 kilograms (kg). His pretreatment height was 136.5 centimeters (cm) (-0.70 standard deviation score (SDS)). His height on therapy 141.9 cm (-0.38 SDS).
His mother's height is 157.48 cm and father's height is 177.8 cm and mid parental height is 174.14 cm (-0.38 SDS).

The requested Norditropin is not medically necessary for this patient.
The peer reviewed literature including consensus clinical guidelines, randomized controlled trials are summarized below:
Classic GH deficiency criteria are outlined in the consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of GH deficiency published by the GH research society[1], the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrinology Society [2, 3], and the medical guidelines for GH use provided by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists[4]. The above referenced guidelines are the latest available guidelines from these respective societies. The diagnosis is based on height, height velocity, biochemical and sometimes radiological findings. The height and height velocity criteria based on consensus guidelines upon which a biochemical evaluation is to be initiated are 1) severe short stature, defined as a height more than 3 standard deviations (SD) below the mean; 2) height more than 1.5 SD below the mid parental height SD; 3) height more than 2 SD below the mean and a height velocity over 1 year (yr) more than 1 SD below the mean for chronological age, or a decrease in height SD of more than 0.5 over 1 yr in children over 2 yr of age; 4) in the absence of short stature, a height velocity more than 2 SD below the mean over 1 yr or more than 1.5 SD sustained over 2 yr. The biochemical criteria include low Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF1) or Insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) or GH stimulation testing with a peak GH less than 10 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml).
The patient did not meet biochemical criteria. Growth hormone stimulation testing peaked at greater than 10. The patient had a normal height and a normal height velocity prior to treatment. The patient does not meet auxological criteria.
Growth hormone in the treatment of idiopathic short stature (ISS) is supported by randomized controlled trials and consensus guidelines [4-9]. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for this indication is for "non-growth hormone-deficient short stature, defined by height SDS less than or equal to -2.25, and associated with growth rates unlikely to permit attainment of adult height in the normal range, in pediatric patients whose epiphyses are not closed and for whom diagnostic evaluation excludes other causes associated with short stature that should be observed or treated by other means."[10-13]
The patient does not have a pretreatment height less than or equal to -2.25 SD. The patient therefore does not meet idiopathic short stature criteria.
The request does not meet any nationally accepted criteria for use of growth hormone. The request is therefore not medically necessary.