PAVmed Inc. (NASDAQ:PAVM) Third Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call November 15, 2022 4:30 p. m. Eastern Time
Participating companies
Adrian Miller – Vice President, IR
Lishan Aklog – President and CEO
Dennis McGrath – President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Charlie Montang – Lake Street Capital Markets
Edward Woo – Ascending Capital Markets LLC
Anthony Vendetti – Maxim Group
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, greetings and welcome to the conference call of PAVmed Inc. about the effects of the third quarter of 2022. Right now, all participants are in listen-only mode. A brief Q&A consultation will be the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this convention is being recorded lately.
Now I must introduce you to your host, Adrian Miller, Vice President of Investor Relations. Continue.
Adrien Miller
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. Meet Adrian Miller, Vice President of Investor Relations at PAVmed. Thank you for today’s phone call.
Dr. Lishan Aklog, president and CEO of PAVmed, and Dennis McGrath, president and chief financial officer of PAVmed, sign up for the call today.
The press release delivering our trade updates and currency effects can be found on the PAVmed website. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer regarding forward-looking statements in the press release. Forward-looking statements and such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown dangers and uncertainties, which could cause actual effects to differ materially from those made.
Factors that may cause actual effects to differ are described in the disclaimer and in our SEC filings. For a list and description of those and other curtain hazards and uncertainties that may cause long-term operations, see Section 1, Article 1A entitled Risk Factors in PAVmed’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC and upcoming updates filed in quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and the upcoming Form 8-K filing.
Except as required by law, PAVmed disclaims any legal purpose or liability to update or publicly revise any forward-looking statements to reflect adjustments in expectations or events, situations or instances on which such expectations may be based, or that the effects are likely to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
With that, I would like to pass the message on to Lishan Aklog. Doctor Aklog?
Lishan Aklog
Thank you Adrien and thank you all. Hello for joining us on this quarterly PAVmed update call. First of all, I would like to thank our long-term shareholders for their continued commitment and support. You’ll notice that this quarter we are employing a new format with a webcast in reaction to the comments, adding one of our long-term investors in Boston. We’re glad we did. So far, comments from yesterday’s recent webcast have been consistently positive.
I remind you, speaking of Lucid, who will present a debunked update on Lucid today, and I inspire those of you who wish to get more main points to see the webcast as yesterday’s committed update call that will be available. for one week on the Investor Relations page on the Lucid website.
As a result, during the quarter and weeks that followed, our team has continued to relentlessly focus on executing our long-term strategy and vision to build a diversified, high-growth medical generation company. The Lucid, Veris and Technology groups are producing effects that are making us move toward this goal, and I am proud to say that it is on time and on budget as we continue to closely monitor the preservation of money to protect our long-term position.
Let me start with some quarterly updates, start with Lucid. As we reported yesterday, EsoGuard’s check volume increased up 20% sequentially quarter-over-quarter and 436% year-over-year to 1,088 checks in the third quarter. We now have thirteen Lucid control centers up and running in 11 states and plan to open 3 more in the fourth quarter. The lab operates independently and we demonstrated improved quality and power measurements on yesterday’s call. And as we noted, we started receiving invoices detecting The profits from our claims began in August.
Very happy that the cancer care platform has progressed well. And now it’s heading towards the initial launch later this year. All primary projects of pre-commercial progression: the products that add Mercury, CarpX Ultrasonics and EsoCure are progressing well, ultimately towards progression of the design freeze, testing and regulatory presentation. And as I mentioned, from a balance sheet perspective, we’ve been able to continue assets and execute our expansion strategy, while preserving liquidity and [indistinguishable].
Just a few introductory slides about PAVmed. PAVmed is a diversified medical generation company in the advertising stage. We started in the medical device space, but have diversified in the years to come with the diagnostics sector and virtual fitness sectors. The design of the corporate lately is composed of two, through majority-owned subsidiaries that are diagnostics and a public corporate in the medical diagnostics and fitness chart or virtual fitness corporations that remain private.
The PAVmed style has evolved into a shared facility style where PAVmed provides comprehensive shared facilities to its subsidiaries and other internal business sets that you can see on the slide, with everything from management, human resources, finance, product development, I see regulatory production clinical studies and others are provided at the PAVmed point on behalf of subsidiaries and business sets and offering us a variety of Key benefits for the business and for our long-term shareholders in terms of economies of scale, facilitates the diversification that affects our capital charge as well as our potential for expansion. PAVmed’s existing portfolio can be divided into advertising products, pre-advertising products that are obviously in the way of advertising and then projects that remain in the field of R.
On the advertising side, we have two Lucid products, [indistinguishable] EsoCheck. We continue to advertise with the complex first-generation device. On the side of pre-advertising, we have the ultrasonic product CarpX. We have Veris products, whether it’s the software platform, the cancer care platform, and various iterations around the Veris port, and then EsoCare, which is our esophageal ablation device that’s complementary to our EsoGuard and EsoCheck products. We also continue to work on R projects
Just a few abstract slides to get Lucid, which are: you can share with our update yesterday. As we mentioned, our check volume expansion for EsoGuard checks continued to increase steadily, 28% compared to last quarter. This expansion has been driven through combined elements, a development chart that I’ll show you, as well as advanced sales education and data-driven processes. And I’ve said many times that we see this as a medium-regime strategy [ph], we’re still not at full speed.
We need to generate sufficient volume of evidence to demonstrate our ability to increase the volume of evidence and demonstrate physician adoption, as well as generate a history of claims, which is vital to long-term contracts in our contracts with payers. Yesterday I described this in a little more detail. , albeit briefly, volume was replaced to reach approximately 22% of patients who were tested or run in satellite Lucid test centers where our own nurse practitioners were located in a doctor’s office and we are excited about the opportunity for expansion. that comes with this new model.
I discussed it, we continue to grow according to plan and expanding our sales team, you can see here that we were up to 37 professionals in the team. And as we’ve described over the last two quarters, our plan is to continue that expansion and stagnate at a point of around 58 sales professionals. This era has been rolled back to the first quarter at the end of this year and we expect to succeed in that number until the middle of the first quarter.
The plan as of this point is to use all 16, but we’re going to be able to continue to drive expansion in test volume through increased participation or an average rep has only been in the box for a month or two. I think it takes [indistinguishable] four months to be fully effective. Our goal is to have 11 states covered right now with thirteen centers, we’re looking to expand that with 3 more by the end of the year. And that may not get us to 16.
And again, we anticipate this will stall there, with no plans to open more control centers and allow existing expansion drivers to reach these paints with our expanded sales infrastructure. Just a few comments about the laboratory. We have, those who know, that we have resumed laboratory operations since February. And we have noticed dramatic innovations and many parameters, operational metrics and quality metrics, showed more details yesterday, perhaps the maximum applicable from the point of view of patients. And doctors is that we now have turnaround times at a record low of just under a week.
And as I also described in more detail yesterday, the procedure through which we can file claims has moved forward and we started this procedure in August. We have more than 2,000 claims that we have withheld since the lab was transferred to us in February. And we are in the process of filing claims, and we have begun to receive, even though this process began in August, claims paid in the last quarter.
Just a comment on. . . some comments about Medicare. Si you take a look at the composition of payers, you can see that our payer composition is very inclined towards personal payers, about 11% are Medicare. With respect to Lucid, with respect to LCD, as you may recall, in the spring it had quite intense activity with the publication of a local policy-making project, LCD; and a wave of activities around the age of public commentary. Now that the era of public comment is over, we’re just waiting for MolDx, Medicare administrative contractors, and affiliates to review and respond to responses.
I just need to explain one thing that there was possibly some confusion in the previous call, as well as reports that MolDx was not communicating with us. And that’s not the case, we’ve actually had calls with MolDx, so they’re going to call to talk about our clinical application plan. But when it comes to the LCD process, and it’s not an interactive process, you just have to wait for them to finish their review, and then we’ll have a chance to respond after an updated LCD screen is released.
On the personal payer side, we continue to have conversations with personal payers, but at the end of the day, in order for us to have meaningful conversations, we want two things. We want a backlog in claims history, which we’re just beginning to do. And also clinical utility, which we are beginning to collect. But as I’ve discussed so far, I had out-of-network bills that are paid for 50% to 60% of network benefits and [indistinguishable] aspects, the target list is worth sending and the bills come in at around $1,200 to $1,400, which is gratifying.
And as I mentioned on the production side, we are actually pleased to send our EsoCheck production to high-volume production. And we see immediate benefits in terms of reduced production prices and long-term capacity and scalability.
Veris Health is a virtual fitness company that introduces a cancer care platform that combines patient engagement with a smartphone and connected devices, as well as an enhanced cancer care platform that the clinical care team can use to gather knowledge about cancer patients. who are in their custody and react accordingly. And do it in a way that is incorporated with the electronic register of aptitude.
The long-term plan is to integrate physiological tracking of implantable-shaped smart devices with biosensors for physiological monitoring. The plan we defined in the previous call for the first launch will refer us to Veris Solar, which is the form of platform connected to the cloud. , a software platform along with enclosures connected to Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Veris Mercury is our first effort to supply a wise implantable port. It is a modular device with an implantable physiological tracking device with a classic vascular cord. And then, the last step will be to have a fully incorporated intelligent implantable vascular network with geology and physiology. tracking.
So, as I mentioned, and I’m going to communicate a little more about it now. We are on track to launch the Veris platform by the end of this year as scheduled, as described above. Left, this is what we are releasing our software platform, which has been finished and is finished and is now in release position. In addition to Bluetooth-connected healthcare measurement devices, you can see the [indistinguishable] activity monitors, the blood pressure cuff, I think the virtual thermometer. And they are all connected via Bluetooth to a facility that the company supplies and allows this data, along with patient symptom reports, to be transmitted via the cloud to the doctors’ platform.
In terms of marketing, we work a lot with Deloitte Consulting to identify market dynamics and take ownership of our business strategy. We are very excited about this style. It is a style based on subscriptions with earnings, with recurring earnings. The practice [indistinguishing] will pay Veris a consistent constant subscription payment with the seat. And they will be built with remote patient tracking, while the RPM codes, which I have shown here, are well identified. They are not threatened with any revision, not with a COVID-era process. These are codes that have existed.
And really, from the point of view of return, it is established. We have nothing to look forward. It also exists: our platform will also facilitate telemedicine billing, which doctors will also have the opportunity to create. Generally, this gives them the opportunity to have a significant net contribution margin, again, based on that existing payout.
Another domain we learned in our early engagements with potential clients is the new oncology improvement model, which is a CMS program that I might not explain in detail, but which necessarily uses incentives when it comes to certain aspects. Quality of care That would be a step forward with this type of remote tracking to offer monetary incentives for internships that could be meaningful, which in particular can increase the practice’s revenue.
We’re focusing on the full spectrum of cancer care, oncology practices, giant cancer centers, built-in fitness networks, rural practices a little early, waiting. . . For apparent reasons, we believe that remote follow-up of patients will be beneficial. And we have our sales team that has already used demos to interact with such practices and with potential customers.
The other facet of this, as you can imagine, is to start with onboarding visitors. So when we launch a site, there are a total number of things that need to be done to make sure the practices, the software, your EHRs, etc. , are fully integrated into our system. We have hired a truly talented and experienced user to lead this effort. He has led consumer engagement and ethics, the giant electronic fitness registration company and so far they are doing a great job with us. in the construction of this infrastructure for the incorporation of consumers.
Our first interactions with potential consumers have been that there’s a very, very strong focus right now on equipment that can enable remote patient tracking and everything else that we have. All the feedback we have gained so far has been quite positive and we are looking forward to having our first visitor under contract until the end of this year and officially launching this product.
Now with a review of the other products in our portfolio. As I mentioned, we continue to perform complex key opinion leader procedures at a decreasing point to continue providing us with procedural and product improvements. But as I described earlier, all our efforts for a longer-term expanded advertising launch are aimed at the CarpX ultrasonic device, this product is progressing well in its design phases and product progression.
We are starting to paint on cadavers and obtaining and starting to get photographs that show that we can use this device to see the anatomical structures in the carpal tunnel and position them so that the cut can be made under direct measurement through ultrasound. So it’s progressing well.
The momentary dominance of pre-commercial product concentrate is that there is a wise port, in the middle of what we internally call Veris Mercury, which is the mix of the implantable central monitor with an existing classic paytable that is also progressing well. We have had multiple interactions with the FDA to perceive and explain what our preclinical tests will be to send to the FDA. We have hired several external high-caliber contract production partners for electronic devices and cabinets, etc. And again, and also the paintings of animals. And again, this is moving in the right direction and I look forward to temporarily getting to the design freeze and moving towards the paints required for regulatory filing.
A very similar story with EsoCure, if you remember. EsoCure is a device that sought to compete with Medtronic’s device for walking Barrett’s dysplastic esophagus. Therefore, it has obvious synergies with EsoGuard, EsoCheck products. It uses direct thermal energy instead of radio frequency. And we’re also making smart progress with catheters, console electronics, all mechanical facets have been the subject of multiple animal studies that have shown promising effects and come with direct oblique comparisons to [indistinguishable] there.
So, again, on target, in time to go through the freezing of the design and, despite everything, towards [indistinguishable]. Some comments about our R projects
But we encountered technical difficulties in the repeatability of the last 8 test stages. And that forced us to go back to the drawing board and relegate NextFlo to an R project.
PortIO is our implantable intraosseous vascular device. Again, we. . . this is still an R project.
Our long-term plans with this have a bit of a revised regulatory strategy, our new one – we had a new vice president of regulatory quality who engaged with us on a procedure to expand a more streamlined plan than in the past we thought we would be relegated to, and depending on how it goes, we can move this into the pre-commercial realm after completing the first [indistinguishable].
So with that, I’m going to finish and hand over the reins to Dennis to give us a monetary update.
Denis McGrath
Thank you, Lishan, good evening everyone. You see the balance sheet in front of you, so our abstract monetary effects for the third quarter were a press release that was issued today. to those comments in the context of a full disclosure covered through our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q that was filed with the SEC yesterday afternoon, and is available on our website.
So, as you can see here, in cash, the sequential minimum is $8. 4 million. Commercial accounts payable are minimized sequentially up to $3 million by adding industry accounts payable and other recurring accrued liabilities. Convertible promissory note, a net accrual of $6 million due to net income of $10. 2 million from the issuance of an additional convertible note. It was offset through $5 million of capital changed to equity similar to the April 2022 note.
As discussed yesterday, Lucid’s committed capital line for percentage revenue provided for the quarter $1. 8 million, of which we had already informed you as part of our August update. The notable percentages for PAVmed, adding our limited percentage awards invested to date, are 93. 2 million percentages. And as also discussed yesterday, Lucid is now eligible for H3 and has a preview with everyone before and similarly to what we’ve already done at PAVmed, Lucid’s board of trustees considers it smart government to have a bookshelf record. [ph] with an ATM built into the registry with the SEC and Lucid plan to do so in due course.
Slide 18 here compares the third quarter of this year to the third quarter of last year in some key elements. -GAAP data.
Revenue for the quarter reflects 39 EsoGuard tests at an average payout rate of $1,945 consistent with the test. The rate is consistent with the 1938 Medicare rate and we earned a payment closer to our ASP of $2,499. And the Medicare rate that distorted thingsArrayLast year reflects the consistent consistency with the monthly payment earned from the third-party lab that Lucid uses before creating our own lab beyond this year.
The popularity of revenue, a key determinant is the likelihood of recovery. We have discussed this several times in the past. For the vast majority of out-of-network Lucid patients, claims mean that the popularity of earnings occurs when the claim is collected, as opposed to when the patient’s report is billed and submitted for reimbursement.
As you’ll see in our 10-Q, this is called variable attention in ASC jargon 606 earnings popularity differences that we all have to meet. And currently, there is rarely enough predictive knowledge to account for profits when they are billed. Our GAAP loss is consistent with approximately 2% and our non-GAAP loss is a decrease: a decrease of approximately 5% for the third quarter due to the effect of an improvement consistent with non-cash fees in the existing quarter similar to convertible debt. Most comparisons are sequential comparisons. Our non-GAAP loss consistent with the consistent percentage was $0. 15 for the third quarter, compared to a loss of $0. 17 consistent with the consistent percentage in the prior quarter.
Slide 19 is therefore a graphical representation of our operating expenses as detailed in our press release. GAAP and non-GAAP total operating prices were strong sequentially. The earnings charge basically includes EsoCheck devices, lab supplies, and constant prices per month or lab facility. And now it is presented in our 10-Q as an operating expense consistent with the practices of other diagnostic companies.
Sales and marketing decreased by approximately 5% sequentially. General and administrative expenses also decreased approximately 9% sequentially, and part of this reflects an allocation of approximately [indistinguishable] laboratory expenses in the last quarter, as no earnings were identified in that quarter, so the typical charge from utility-type expenses to general and administrative expenses is reclassified in this regard. Last quarter. And finally, the R
So, with that, operator, let’s open the questions.
Q&A session
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] The first comes from Frank Takkinen’s lineage of Lake Street. Continue.
Charlie Montang
Good night. Hi, guys. I’m Charlie Montang for Frank. Just a few quick questions for me. First on the lucid forehead. I listened to your comments about cap centers, I guess that doesn’t mean indefinitely. Can you maybe just talk, what you’ll see before you rewind openings and maybe a concept of time around that?
Lishan Aklog
Of course. Let me begin by emphasizing one thing, and that is to continue to insist on this point. Lucid’s control centers are growing, they’re not engines of growth, are they?They are not, they do not generate genuine activity. They must be had for checks ordered through doctors through our sales and marketing procedure to actually perform the checks. And also, I just need to point out one thing very quickly, Charlie, before we answer for a moment, and that is that we now have expanded our use of Lucid satellite control centers where our nurse practitioners can be more mobile and work within those [indistinguishable].
Therefore, the Lucid Test Center cap and the [indistinguishable] are part of the same cap strategy for our sales force. And that’s all we described in a little more detail, in the last quarterly call, as part of our efforts. to be careful about preserving liquidity, we set a purpose for both of us that we thought we could give ourselves: it would have given us a critical mass in terms of the sales team, then with enough help with Lucid’s verification centers to help the sales team, where we can continue at a constant point to drive expansion through greater sales force power. as they spend more time in the field, etc.
Everything is driven through this average acceleration strategy, it rarely is. We want to have enough business so that we can demonstrate continued sales expansion to spread the word to continue our momentum with physicians and physician adoption. Well, we also want to continue with thisexpansion to generate a history of claims, which is a critical step, one of your critical steps to engage personal payers, for network contracts, but to do it cautiously at a medium level, because we still have, we are not yet at the point where we have predictable reimbursement.
So, I think the answer for the last component of your query is, is this a permanent thing?No, it’s not. It’s just one: where we avoid at a point that we think we can, that we’re sure we’re going to allow ourselves to continue driving growth, but keeping our prices in check, and that pivoting from that will be a service from what we see in terms of the trajectory of other bills on the network and the percentage of Lucid checks that are paid. of the network. Again, we point out that we are quite satisfied with the bills we receive, we just don’t know, we just don’t have enough length of the pattern to know what percentage of the check will generate that. volume.
And then, of course, as we gather knowledge from clinical applications and interact with personal payers, we’ll start to see it on network bills as well. Then, until we. . . It’s a trend on hold that we believe will continue. Drive expansion in test volume. But the tendency to wait until we get there in terms of infrastructure until we get more predictable payment numbers, we just think it’s the right kind of prudent thing from a cash preservation standpoint.
Charlie Montang
Great, okay. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying this. My other question, I’m just looking at the balance sheet that looks good. Have your capital allocations since replaced?Or we keep thinking about the order of [indistinguishable] CarpX.
Lishan Aklog
That is precisely what has been described to us, and we have stuck to that plan. As you can see, we’re already seeing savings on the R side.
When it comes to resource investment. Capital allocation, as you say, in the product portfolio. The concentrate is strong and remains the same in those 3 products. Therefore, the 3 products are the ultrasound edition of CarpX, the first edition. of an implantable Veris device, this Veris Mercury product and the EsoCure esophageal ablation product. So that’s where we concentrate our resources and our capital allocation. But we are not closing, we are proceeding to make efforts in the two study projects that I have described. But those are modest investments. They are natural paintings by R.
And then, as we talked last time, we simplified and put on hold a number of lower-priority, underperforming, and, in our opinion, high-risk projects that we work on and those that remain in the [indistinguishable].
Charlie Montang
It is ok! Great. Thank you very much. And if I can, just one last quick question. You talked about an industry deal with an [indistinguishable] building in May. Can you give us an update on this contract and tell us whether you have won or not?a refund under this contract? And if so, at what level?
Lishan Aklog
Just to remind you that even though we had, that was the first example. But since then, we’ve reported on several, we have seven, write me if I’m wrong, seven or eight, similar secondary PPO contracts. We haven’t hurt with that knowledge and we’re not reporting on those Americans on some sort of individual aircraft at this point, it would be too granular at that point with the size of the pattern. I think suffice it to say that, you saw that we have 39 bills this quarter, which are a combination of a variety of personal payers. And Dennis gave him the average payment knowledge, which was 19, just over $1,900. And also that the other network bills that come in are $1,200 to $1,400.
So because we have a higher volume and we have a large enough pattern size, we’ll be able to know where the bills are coming from, whether they’re coming from secondary BPOs, some other network with classic payers, most likely with Medicare. and so on. But I think it’s a bit inopportune to break it. Dennis, would you like to add anything to that?
Denis McGrath
I disagree. It’s too early to give reliable directional data to create any kind of forecast based on the data we’ve received so far. It is too early in the submission procedure and the collection procedure.
Lishan Aklog
I mean, the bottom line, Charlie, is that the check for the 39 bills we filed in August that were paid before September was a personal payment. So, and it’s a combination of other payers and we’re looking to expand that, and maybe at some point break it.
Charlie Montang
It is ok! Great. Thank you very much and thank you for answering my questions. I go back to the queue.
Lishan Aklog
Thank you Charly.
Charlie Montang
thanks.
Operator
The next one comes from Ed Woo’s line of Ascending Capital Markets LLC. Continue.
Eduardo Woo
Yes, thank you for responding to me and congratulations on the progress. I know you’re very focused on your capital allocation right now. But what do you see there in terms of space M?
Lishan Aklog
The answer is yes. And I probably appreciate you requesting this call because there’s not much I can communicate with directly, however, there are a lot of opportunities out there. And as has been the case, we see many opportunities in the area and we can compare them. And you’re right, I mean, markets are corporations that run out of liquidity and for a variety of other reasons are looking for spouses or being acquired, etc. So there’s a lot of activity there. There is nothing to report at this time. But we will inform you clearly when, if we cross the threshold with one of the opportunities we are looking for.
Denis McGrath
But let me reiterate another point I made last time, which is that our positions on preserving money are vital. It is vital that we monitor and protect our long-term interests. But I’ve also said several times that we’re not a kind of violation of our core DNA of this company, which was to take advantage of attractive opportunities, as we say, just like we did with Lucid and Veris. The profile of what it would look like: it is obviously a bit except now than it would have been 2 or 3 years ago. And we look at opportunities with a very close look at whether they can be synergistic with our existing portfolio in any way and not be capital flight and be cumulative to some degree at closing. into the future. So, those are the criteria we’re looking for. We have opportunities when we have looked, we continue to look at the world. We’ll let you know when [indistinguishable].
Eduardo Woo
Super. Well, thank you and good luck.
Lishan Aklog
ok, thanks
Operator
Our next one comes from Anthony Vendetti’s lineage of Maxim Group LLC. Continue.
Lishan Aklog
Antonio, night.
Antoine Vendetti
Good evening, Denis. Hello Lishan. How are you?
Lishan Aklog
Super.
Antoine Vendetti
I just wanted to dig a little deeper into Veris’ advertising launch until the end of the year. Can you tell us a little bit about that specific business model?And what does the pipeline of potential consumers look like right now?
Lishan Aklog
Yes, well, let me start with the last thing. So, the portfolio of potential consumers is the full diversity of [indistinguishable] oncology practices that we have. Q3, we were fortunate to have a smart appointment with Lloyds [ph] and did extensive dynamic market placement and market research with Therefore, we have a very intelligent understanding of where patients get their cancer care, and it can range from relatively small personal practices to larger practices, even mega-practices, as well as oncology systems affiliated with medium-sized network hospitals. The gigantic university medical center. All of them are our goals for us. As I mentioned, there is an apparent opportunity with rural practices, in terms of benefit, their patients tend to be more dispersed. And the benefits of remote patient follow-up are especially greater prospectively with this group.
The entrepreneurial style is just a kind of dive a little deeper. And because we have interaction in practice, we, when we interact with them, now have demonstrations that show how the software platform can force, we can force with patient symptom reports, as well as the data from those Bluetooth-connected devices and provide them with data not only for their care, but also to give them the opportunity to record the activity they undergo. which can be reimbursed as remote patient tracking or RPM.
RPM is a hot topic right now. And establishing a formula that allows doctors to bill with RPM codes, again, those are established codes that are not transition codes, like some of the telemedicine codes that come out of COVID, requires a very smart software platform and our feedback so far has been quite positive. We’ve found that the practices are very much geared towards RPM codes and the ability to generate profit through RPM, and our platform does.
One of the things you want to do to bill RPM codes per month is that they will have to show that the patient has submitted information of any kind from a device other than the FDA-cleared device at least 16 days out of the year. . So, that requires an intelligent platform engaged with the patient, which encourages them to do . . . To measure your various [indistinguishables] thinking ahead, once we have an implantable device, that will be corrected in an obvious way, because it will not have the participation and compliance of the patient.
Then, as I mentioned, there’s the other part, the extra price here comes from the ability to integrate into your IP system. Therefore, the procedure of integrating with your fitnesscare, with your electronic fitness record and other facets of the IT infrastructure requires a confident dexterity and skills on our part. And we’re satisfied that we recruited someone who was able to help us with this kind of [indistinguishable] commitment.
Antoine Vendetti
That’s okay.
Lishan Aklog
So it’s a little bit of attention to what I said, but maybe there’s more, more details you wanted to go through.
Antoine Vendetti
Yes, no, it’s great. It’s smart to know. Just a quick follow-up for a quick inquiry about CarpX. So, there is a debate about how much policy the CMS that expanded the COVID telemedicine policy will allow to continue. In terms of remote patient monitoring, is there lately any specific CPT code to fall under this and. . . ?
Lishan Aklog
Yes, yes, it is on slide 15. There are codes for one-time integration for the monthly fee. So I list them all on slide 15. They’re not there yet, just to emphasize a third time, they’re not transient codes that have been implemented. Although telemedicine codes were introduced under COVID and are subject to some sort of ongoing legal updating, those RPM codes are not. So they are there and our codes are well established, the payment rates are well established. The criteria through which you can build are well established when it comes to the 16th of the month. So, all this infrastructure and reimbursement are somewhat established.
Antoine Vendetti
It is ok! Súper. Es useful. And then, before moving on to CarpX, 37 sales professionals enter 58, that is, one hundred percent for Lucid?
Lishan Aklog
Yes, it’s for Lucid, yes. We’re not, we haven’t reported on Veris’ sales team yet. Veris is right: obviously, we are only preparing for that. We have control in place, we are starting to create individual sales representatives, so right now, the sales department, they are the ones who are really looking for a high-end dispersion for the first users of the various technologies and we will report on the other sales groups over time. And at CarpX, we have, we have 3 other people, the same other people that we’ve had this limited procedure and product improvement as a goal at launch, and then they’re still the same.
Antoine Vendetti
It is ok. Any of KOLs in CarpX right now?
Lishan Aklog
Therefore, the activity of CarpX lately continues to be this painting of new procedures and products and of obtaining better products. So we have our KOL core. We would be looking to grow here and there, however, as I mentioned before, we are not investing in expanding the team or expanding this business beyond the limited amount of KOL we have. . We use it exclusively as a procedure in paints outside of product development. And we’re going to wait for the CarpX ultrasound before preparing for a full publicity launch.
Antoine Vendetti
It is ok! Super. Je I’m going to the line. Thanks a lot. Enjoy.
Lishan Aklog
A single follow-up. Can I upload a very quick follow-up to Anthony’s last question, which is that, as you can imagine, the surgeons on our KOL list, with whom we exercise, but with whom I may never work and do a limited number?of cases, we also show them the CarpX ultrasound device and the prototypes for that and where we’re headed with that. And comments on this about the skill of the other people who performed the procedure with the Gen 1 device and comments about the option of having an intraluminal ultrasound. Therefore, ultrasound images when you are running in the carpal tunnel have been positive. And then when we use those other people with CarpX to help us in this process of progression. Thank you, operator. Sorry for the interruption.
Operator
Thank you, girls and gentlemen, we have come to the end of the question and answer session. Now I would like to face the convention with Dr. Lishan Aklog, President and CEO, for closing remarks.
Lishan Aklog
Once back, I would like to thank you all for being with us today. And very smart questions from all the other people who came here and a very clever discussion. Expect to be completely transparent with our communications and stay on top of our progress and stay tuned for our press releases and, of course, quarterly calls. We welcome any comments. As I mentioned, the webcast was the result of direct feedback from individual investors who asked us for recommendations on how to improve our communications. And we are open to this and anticipate more positive or negative feedback. our email alerts and stay updated with our social networks. And as Array Adrian is available for direct contact in akm@pavmed. com. So thank you all and have a nice day.
Operator
The convention of Merci. La PAVmed Inc is over. Thank you for your participation. You can now disconnect your lines.