In a victory for many cancer patients in Michigan, the state's top insurance regulator told health plans on Monday that they cannot deny coverage for clinically proven cancer treatments, and she made it clear for the first time that this includes cutting-edge genetic and biologic therapies.

The move follows weeks of questions from ProPublica and pressure from state lawmakers after the news organization reported in November that an insurer there refused to pay for the only treatment that could save the life of Forrest VanPatten, a 50-year-old father of two, even though a state law requires insurers to pay for proven cancer drugs.

Internal emails obtained by ProPublica showed that executives at Priority Health, the second-largest insurer in Michigan, had argued that the expensive treatment VanPatten needed was a gene therapy, not a drug, so the state's mandate didn't apply. VanPatten died in February 2020, still fighting for access to treatment. Priority Health's associate chief medical officer had tried fruitlessly to convince his bosses that the company was required to cover the treatment, known as CAR T-cell therapy. He later told ProPublica: "We crossed the line."