Helius Medical Technologies to Exhibit at 2024 CMSC Annual Meeting, Marking a Year of Achievements

Making PoNS More Available to People with MS

Company Will Highlight Major Milestones on Accessibility and Reimbursement Fronts

NEWTOWN, Pa., May 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Helius Medical Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSDT) (“Helius” or the “Company”), a neurotech company focused on delivering a novel therapeutic neuromodulation approach for balance and gait deficits, will exhibit for the third consecutive year at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting, where it will spotlight a year of significant progress in making its innovative Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS) more accessible to people whose multiple sclerosis (MS) has impaired their ability to walk.

CMSC’s 38^th Annual Meeting runs from May 29 to June 1 at the Music City Center in Nashville, TN. Visitors to booth 500 will learn about PoNS – a non-implantable, orally applied, electrical stimulation therapy that, when used in combination with rehabilitative physical exercise, improves gait in people with MS – as well as Helius’ efforts to broaden PoNS’s availability.

“From the beginning, we have prioritized getting PoNS to as many people with MS and gait deficit as possible. We have been actively meeting and negotiating with insurers and others with the goal of increasing accessibility even before PoNS was commercially available,” said Helius Chief Executive Officer Dane Andreeff. “The hard work is paying off, and our achievements over the past two months, in particular, have fueled real momentum. We’re eager to share the latest good news about PoNS and its availability with visitors to our booth.”

Helius’s ability to make PoNS more accessible reflects three significant recent events:

• In March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) assigned Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes covering the PoNS controller and mouthpiece, an important milestone in obtaining reimbursement through Medicare. Following public meetings held at the end of May, CMS will make its final decision on pricing, which will be effective October 1, 2024.
• In April, Helius partnered with Lovell Government Services to make PoNS available to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, and home to a network of Multiple Sclerosis Centers of Excellence – the U.S. Department of Defense, and other federal healthcare providers.
• Helius also has trained a critical mass of physical therapists, who design the customized exercise regimens that are an integral part of PoNS Therapy. Having more physical therapists on the ground around the country, including the 10 states where MS is most prevalent, makes it easier for people with MS to access a partner near their home.