00;00;01;14 - 00;00;05;28

Announcer

And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall.

00;00;06;00 - 00;00;24;26

Cary Hall

Hello, America. Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate. Show broadcasting coast to coast across USA. Here on the HIA Radio Network, you can learn more about us by going to the website AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com. Send me an email if you’ve got a question or comment I'll be happy to respond to.

00;00;24;27 - 00;00;44;08

Cary Hall

Oh, and by the way, thank you all of you who liked the shirt. Okay, the psycho bunny shirt. So I'm wearing it again. Just want to let everybody know that I listened to what you said. Additionally, if you want to follow the show or tell somebody about the show, we have the YouTube channel America's Healthcare Advocate, 16 podcast channels, including Rumble, which we just added.

00;00;44;08 - 00;01;02;17

Cary Hall

So the show is out there. We've got about a half a million views on YouTube, and I don't know what Dave, where we're at on the podcast? That's a couple hundred thousand, I think. So it continues to grow. This show today is probably one you might want to go up and listen to. I think you're going to find it pretty interesting in studio with me today, Doctor Monique Gary.

00;01;02;18 - 00;01;20;08

Cary Hall

She is the chief medical officer of Bexa and Elizabeth Vire. She is the chief revenue officer of Bexa. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Flying in here from Philadelphia to be with us today. I really appreciate that. And you canceled a trip to get back here and try to be on the show. So thank you both for doing this.

00;01;20;10 - 00;01;43;22

Cary Hall

So this is a show that we've talked about. I've talked with Elizabeth about for some time when I met her and we talked about this program, what they do, the technology. I was floored by what it is. You know, we try very hard on this broadcast to bring you things that are leading edge medical technology, leading edge, cures that are being explored, things that are being done.

00;01;43;22 - 00;02;08;22

Cary Hall

They're sometimes out of the box, like the WAVi brain scan, like the Neuro20. Well, this device is very much like that. It's all about breast cancer. And it's all about why this device can do a better job than the conventional way we're treating breast cancer, and the conventional way we're looking to find out whether women have the beginnings of breast cancer, late stage breast cancer, whatever it is, we're going to explore all that today.

00;02;08;29 - 00;02;26;17

Cary Hall

You're going to learn a lot. So, you know, obviously this show is, directed toward women who have issues or may have an issue or have concerns. But if you're the husband, you're the father. You know, whatever the case may be, you've got a woman in your family who may be at risk. You want to listen to this show.

00;02;26;17 - 00;02;41;15

Cary Hall

So let's just start, Elizabeth. So let's talk about Bexa. It's an international company. You're here in the United States, you're in Columbia, South America, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia. That's pretty significant. Let's talk about what Bexa is and how it works.

00;02;41;15 - 00;02;57;01

Elizabeth Vire

Absolutely. Well, I always like to first start off with what Bexa is not. Just to make sure we're very clear from the very beginning. So Bexa is not a competitor to mammography. For those women above the age of 40 who are currently getting their annual breast screening, it's amazing. Keep doing what you're doing. Bexa is also not a mammogram solution.

00;02;57;01 - 00;03;19;21

Elizabeth Vire

So Bexa is an alternative to mammography. We are here to help close the annual screening gap in two ways. One, for those above the age of 40 who are not getting their annual breast screenings today due to pain, radiation inconvenience, delayed results, and dense breast tissue. And then two for those who do not currently meet the age guidelines of mammography unless they have some type of family history in most cases.

00;03;19;24 - 00;03;41;00

Elizabeth Vire

So Bexa is a painless, radiation free breast exam. We have our examiners who are certified breast sonographer come on site to an employer's location or to an on site clinic to provide those exams that last no longer than 30 minutes. So very in and out again, convenient and we have accurate and immediate results. We're also density fiber cystic and breast implant independent.

00;03;41;03 - 00;03;58;02

Elizabeth Vire

And we service our men and women above the age of 18. And again, you can be pregnant, breastfeeding because we are radiation free. So we really try to close that gap again of annual breast screenings. But then we remove all the barriers as to why women do not receive their annual breast screenings or can't today.

00;03;58;04 - 00;04;15;06

Cary Hall

So doctor, how did this come to be? Hey, I mean, we spent 2.5 hours last night over dinner. We had a wonderful time and I learned an enormous amount. And I've done a lot of research, a lot of work to get these shows ready. So what was the who was the brainchild behind all of this to bring all this together?

00;04;15;09 - 00;04;18;24

Cary Hall

And because it's completely different than what we're doing now.

00;04;19;00 - 00;04;39;07

Monique Gary

Oh, it's it's completely out of the box, but it's not entirely new. So the concept, the way Bexa works is a process called elastography. So it's looking at the stiffness of the breast tissue. An easy way to think about that. It's like a sponge, right? If your fingers are gliding along the sponge. It’s spongy, it‘s spongy, it’s spongy. If it hits an olive pit, all of a sudden there's something stiffer in the tissues.

00;04;39;09 - 00;05;03;13

Monique Gary

So that concept has been around since the 80s, really 1986, where we used to use that for finding cancers in the liver. Now where it gets really interesting. And this is the storytelling part of this conversation, where we're telling stories a little early, is that it was developed and innovated by a gentleman from the Harvard Robotics Laboratory named Jaeyong, whose mother had some breast issues, and she was very reluctant to get her mammogram.

00;05;03;16 - 00;05;18;07

Monique Gary

And he was working on the robotic haptics, like the fingers, you know, how hard you press on the phone and what happens as a result of that. And so why can't I take this type of technology and put it into something that's not radiation or something handheld to find masses in the breast, like that's what we should be doing.

00;05;18;10 - 00;05;34;13

Monique Gary

And that's how Bexa was born. It was initially called SureTouch. And so back in the late 90s, early 2000s. If you look up some things, you'll see a little bit on on SureTouch. But the email address when you get an email from SureTouch with SureTouch dot me.SureTouch.me. Well okay.

00;05;34;14 - 00;05;36;25

Cary Hall

Hold on a minute. There could be a problem with that.

00;05;36;26 - 00;05;51;16

Monique Gary

Our our CEO is he evaluated this technology cause we didn't invent it, right? We acquired it. And as he looked to acquire it, he said, well, that's gotta go. So what should we call it? And he began to do tremendous amounts of market research with women. And they said, we need a better breast exam.

00;05;51;19 - 00;05;53;07

Cary Hall

Better breast exam.

00;05;53;07 - 00;05;55;02

Monique Gary

Hence ‘Bexa’ was born.

00;05;55;04 - 00;05;56;11

Cary Hall

And that's how it all came to be.

00;05;56;11 - 00;05;56;28

Monique Gary

Indeed.

00;05;57;01 - 00;06;17;27

Cary Hall

So you know, Elizabeth said a couple things that are interesting. Age guidelines. So one of the things that I thought was interesting, when we looked at statistics was the number of women not getting exams. How much of that falls to women that are below the age where they qualify to go in for the mammogram? And older women I had this conversation with my wife.

00;06;17;27 - 00;06;34;23

Cary Hall

I was talking about all of this was doing show prep over the last 3 or 4 days. She said, gosh, I haven't had a breast exam. I don't even remember when. She's 76. So let's talk about that. Why is that piece important? Why is it being overlooked? There's a huge gap there. Let's talk about that doctor.

00;06;34;23 - 00;06;38;08

Monique Gary

Oh, boy. So you've opened the can of worms here, right? With the preventive test.

00;06;38;08 - 00;06;43;07

Cary Hall

I'm good at that. But you are. Not good at getting them back into the can, but I’m really good at opening it.

00;06;43;14 - 00;07;00;21

Monique Gary

This this one's not going back in the can. So, you know, there are clinical guidelines, meaning what doctors think women should do to check every year to make sure they're okay and that they don't have breast cancer. And then there are other guidelines. There are guidelines developed by folks who maybe don't do anything in the breast cancer space who are not oncologists.

00;07;00;21 - 00;07;21;05

Monique Gary

They're not breast surgeons like myself. And that's where the preventive task force sort of falls in. So the task force gives us some recommendations on when women, at average risk should start screening. And every society, every major medical society does the same thing. And they say women who have average risk, no family history. Right. They, don't have any radiation exposures, any of the other things.

00;07;21;05 - 00;07;30;24

Monique Gary

No mutations in the genes... start at 40. And we say go every year until you are... until your life expectancy is less than ten years. Right? Now.

00;07;30;27 - 00;07;39;20

Cary Hall

Well, okay. So how the hell do you know when your life expectancy is less than ten years? That's the part where I'm like, whoa.

00;07;39;21 - 00;07;41;17

Monique Gary

So that's not the I'm.

00;07;41;20 - 00;07;48;15

Cary Hall

76 years old. I thoroughly believe she's going to make it well past 86. Why, I'm lost.

00;07;48;18 - 00;08;05;00

Monique Gary

We'll get this. You're not the only one. So we're all the doctors because the task force says stop at 74. Once you hit 74 you don't have to go anymore. So there are women who are 75 who are vibrant, who play golf with pickleball every day. My Nana was 99 and driving. And she's wearing her lipstick. Right. I got a long life ahead of me.

00;08;05;00 - 00;08;15;05

Monique Gary

Why should I stop at 74? So there's a lot of confusion in what we're recommending to women, and it trickles down. The docs are confused, the women are confused, and you know what it means. Things are getting missed.

00;08;15;08 - 00;08;35;04

Cary Hall

Yeah, things are getting mixed and things are being missed. Okay. And that's one of the reasons why we're doing this show today is we're going to talk about those gaps. What needs to be done. Why is this technology different? Why do women prefer this technology when they are exposed to it versus getting the mammogram? Is it easier? Is it more convenient?

00;08;35;04 - 00;08;49;19

Cary Hall

What does that mean. And we'll talk about some other things. But when we come back from the break we're going to talk about what we call the Bexa solution. So we'll come back to the break. We'll talk about the Bexa solution, and we'll start getting into the weeds on how all of this works and what you can expect.

00;08;49;22 - 00;09;15;29

Cary Hall

If you want to connect with these folks and learn more about their product and their services. So the website is mybexa.com, mybexa.com. You want to call them, you can actually do that. 1 888 469 2392, 1 888 469 2392. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate. Broadcasting coast to coast across the USA.

00;09;16;00 - 00;09;28;20

Cary Hall

Don't go anywhere. The doctors in the house. We'll be right back.

00;09;28;23 - 00;09;51;01

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show, broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. I want to say hello to our newest affiliate, WZGM, AM and FM 96.1, Asheville, North Carolina. I want to thank Brian Siebold there. He is the program director for putting us on the air. Very happy to be in Asheville, North Carolina.

00;09;51;07 - 00;10;11;16

Cary Hall

Hope you all are doing well down there and recovering from that horrible flood and all the difficult times you had. But, welcome to the family. We're glad to have you on board in studio with me, doctor Monique. Gary, she is the chief medical officer for Bexa and Elizabeth Vire. She's the chief revenue officer. Doctor Gary completed her medical degree at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

00;10;11;18 - 00;10;39;04

Cary Hall

Her general surgery training at UMass, followed by breast surgical oncology fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital. She holds multiple faculty appointments. Associate Professor of Surgery, PCOM Temple, University. Associate Professor of Health Equity within Dartmouth University, and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncology, and a master's degree in Molecular biology. Probably knows a little bit about the topic.

00;10;39;05 - 00;10;59;12

Cary Hall

Right. Elizabeth Vire is the chief revenue officer. She has 15 years experience with revenue growth, leading high performance sales teams, optimizing and market strategies. And what Elizabeth brings to the table here. And we're going to talk about this later on. We're going to do another show. But we're going to talk a lot about what this means. And this is this is Elizabeth’s forte.

00;10;59;18 - 00;11;20;03

Cary Hall

What does this mean to self-insured employers? What does it mean to TPAs? What does it mean to groups that want to reduce their overall cost? That's where Elizabeth's going to really shine in terms of discussing that this is where her expertise is. So two experts in here today very happy to have them. All right. You said something when we went on break.

00;11;20;06 - 00;11;24;12

Cary Hall

Why do we need more solutions? Why do we need them?

00;11;24;14 - 00;11;41;19

Monique Gary

Well, it's not because the current one doesn't work, right. We all know mammograms save lives. Colonoscopies save lives. Yes. Right. PAP smears, all of these things. So in the breast space, mammograms have been around since the 60s. But have the numbers of early detections gone up?

00;11;41;21 - 00;11;42;04

Cary Hall

No,

00;11;42;05 - 00;11;42;29

Monique Gary

to a point.

00;11;43;05 - 00;11;59;00

Monique Gary

And then they dropped back down. And the reason has a lot to do with why women aren't getting this one test that they know saves lives. If 1 in 8 of us would get it, if we would get this, we might find something early. Right. No woman ever said, hey, if you add contrast to that. I'll do that. Right. Give me an IV now.

00;11;59;00 - 00;12;12;27

Monique Gary

Right? Or if you had 3D, sign me up for it. Oh, AI? Now I'm going to stand in line for it. There's something wrong with the process of mammography that's offputting to women. And so when those numbers are stagnant, no matter how many Super Bowl commercials we all sponsor and how many Pink-Outs.

00;12;12;29 - 00;12;14;02

Cary Hall

And they wear the pink shoes.

00;12;14;05 - 00;12;26;08

Monique Gary

Where are the pink shoes? I got my pink shoes on. I love my pink. It's not moving the needle. And so what that means is there's an opportunity for innovation to fill those gaps. Not only that, the cancer yesterday is not the cancer tomorrow.

00;12;26;08 - 00;12;26;29

Cary Hall

But what does that mean?

00;12;27;00 - 00;12;36;10

Monique Gary

Meaning, in my practice, I'm seeing women who are younger and younger schoolteachers in their 30s. I'm seeing folks in their 20s get cancer, and all the statistics are showing 29 and 39.

00;12;36;12 - 00;12;37;26

Cary Hall

And the guideline is 40 and above.

00;12;37;26 - 00;12;39;18

Monique Gary

The guidelines 40 and above.

00;12;39;20 - 00;12;42;26

Cary Hall

So we're missing that whole class of women.

00;12;42;26 - 00;12;50;15

Monique Gary

And so what we say, oh, we'll get through risk scoring and know your family history. 80% of those young women have no family history of breast cancer.

00;12;50;18 - 00;12;53;17

Cary Hall

Wow. So 80% have none.

00;12;53;19 - 00;13;02;28

Monique Gary

Those young women are the one, the 29 to 39 year olds who are getting breast cancer faster than everybody else. No family history. A risk assessment might not have helped them.

00;13;03;00 - 00;13;13;24

Cary Hall

So you just said something. The 29 to 39 years old are getting breast cancer faster than in the. Yeah, what what do we do? Any idea why that's happening?

00;13;13;24 - 00;13;36;01

Monique Gary

It's a separate show. But there are things, environmental things. There are things called endocrine disruptors. Right. What's messing with our hormones? What's in our food that we're eating? What's messing with the inflammation in our bodies. Right. Our hair products. Right. Dyes. There's so many things that are contributing that we think are contributing smoking, vaping, alcohol, sedentary lifestyle. Covid really showed us that the health of this nation is very poor.

00;13;36;02 - 00;13;38;29

Cary Hall

Oh, we're we're absolutely the worst. Yeah.

00;13;38;29 - 00;13;55;07

Monique Gary

And so then we see these people and we're like, oh, you're too young for breast cancer. You don't fit the mold. But they do. And so there's two problems. There's the guideline problem right where people are okay, you're 40 and above. But what if you're a black woman like me, right. We're getting breast cancer ten years younger, more aggressive later stage.

00;13;55;10 - 00;14;12;25

Monique Gary

The guidelines say, well, maybe it's not enough evidence to say you should get, you know, additional screening. What about the women with dense breast? 48% of women. Every second person has something called dense breast. And the FDA says you should get supplemental imaging. We should do more stuff to look. It’s like looking at a cloudy sky looking for cloud.

00;14;12;28 - 00;14;29;25

Monique Gary

That's the density, right? Okay. FDA says you should get more imaging U.S. preventive task force those guidelines. And now there's not enough evidence to suggest that. So there's all this confusion. Meanwhile women don't know what to do and they're not getting their imaging every year. And so it's not a problem with the technology. But there is a problem with the process.

00;14;29;28 - 00;14;34;23

Monique Gary

And that's where Bexa comes in as a really smart solution for adoption that works.

00;14;34;25 - 00;14;41;09

Cary Hall

But there's a problem with acceptance. Yeah. Because the women are saying, not so much.

00;14;41;11 - 00;14;41;29

Monique Gary

I don't want that.

00;14;42;03 - 00;15;02;12

Cary Hall

Yeah I don't yeah, I'm busy. I don't have time to mess with that, yada yada yada, yada, yada. So we're missing this whole class where he was switched to the, you know, those of us that are chronologically challenged and where that's at. Okay. And and as a result of that, you're having the numbers are starting to creep up now.

00;15;02;13 - 00;15;15;11

Monique Gary

Yeah. Just think about it. Every year you go and they call you back and say, oh, you got to get another test because you've got dense breast, but it may not be covered by your insurance. So now you got to take another day from work. You got to find something to do with the kids, with the elders, something to do with the dinner that you were going to stop and pick up.

00;15;15;11 - 00;15;30;18

Monique Gary

You got to move your plans and get another test. It could be two weeks, it could be two months. And then they say, oh, you going to come back for a little bit more? Let's check it again in six months. So this process is expensive right. The process of we call that false positive meaning your mama was inconclusive.

00;15;30;18 - 00;15;37;17

Monique Gary

We kind of see something and it might be might not be. That process is so off putting to women that they say, you know what, I'm not doing that again this year.

00;15;37;20 - 00;15;57;18

Cary Hall

And then if I heard you correctly, and this is interesting because I've been in this industry for 30 plus years, it may not be covered by insurance. So there are policies that don't cover these follow ups. So then the woman, well, I can't afford to get a 1700 or 2000 or $3,000 MRI, Cat scan, whatever it's going to be.

00;15;57;20 - 00;15;59;13

Cary Hall

So I'm just not going to do it precisely.

00;15;59;16 - 00;16;18;06

Monique Gary

And have you if you've ever had an MRI, you go on that machine. Once you get that dye that makes your mouth water and you're like, okay, I'm not doing this again. And so all of these reasons are compounding why we're finding cancers at a later stage. So we got to do something different. We cannot continue to do the same things and expect different results.

00;16;18;08 - 00;16;19;24

Cary Hall

Yeah, that's the definition of failure.

00;16;19;25 - 00;16;20;11

Monique Gary

Precisely.

00;16;20;11 - 00;16;39;16

Cary Hall

And we're certainly failing. Yeah. This you know, you said something last night. We've only have about two minutes left. Back to that MRI thing. So I've had multiple MRIs. Had a brain tumor in 85. You know I, I've done this. Well you're on your back going in. How do the women do it when they go in for the breast MRI?

00;16;39;17 - 00;16;50;23

Monique Gary

Oh, so you're on your stomach in this Superman pose. Right face turned to the side, staring at the side of that machine. All that noise, all that whirring. Even if they play a little bit of music. But it's a completely uncomfotable...

00;16;50;23 - 00;16;51;10

Cary Hall

You can't hear any music in that thing.

00;16;51;10 - 00;16;52;29

Cary Hall

Superman, Superman pose.

00;16;52;29 - 00;17;07;12

Monique Gary

Yeah. Now it's better than that. It's better than the smash-a-graham, right? It's better than squeezing it between the two metal plates with 28 pounds of pressure, because that's what a mammogram is. So they're like, well, let's give every woman MRIs, but the MRI find everything and then you need ultrasounds after that and then you need biopsies after that.

00;17;07;15 - 00;17;17;25

Monique Gary

This whole process. And in the process the women aren't informed of what's been seen. They get a message in the portal, hey, we saw something. Call this number. And what are you supposed to do? You have no idea what's wrong with your breasts.

00;17;17;27 - 00;17;38;00

Cary Hall

and what's the anxiety level? My wife suffers from heart failure. The first thing she does when she gets her labs is goes right to the website. She did this yesterday. A couple of things were down. She's like, I hold the phone. You don't start interpreting your own information here. Let's go from there. But the level of anxiety is huge, right?

00;17;38;01 - 00;17;41;11

Monique Gary

You could have a cancer. You may not know what to do for weeks to months.

00;17;41;11 - 00;18;04;18

Cary Hall

And that's the problem. All right. So now you know when we come back from the break we're going to talk about the Bexa solution. Now we've framed the problem. We've talked about what's going on. Now we're going to come back and talk about how do we fix it. All right. If you want to learn more, the website is mybexa.com, mybexa.com, the phone number 1-800-469-2392 1-800-469-2392.

00;18;04;23 - 00;18;19;16

Cary Hall

You want to learn more about this? Go to the website or give them a call. You certainly might want to think about this if you've got a self-funded plan in a large employer group. If you're a TPA, even if you're a broker or human resource director, might want to take a look at it. We'll be right back after the break.

00;18;19;16 - 00;18;38;07

Cary Hall

You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across USA. Stay tuned. We've got more.

00;18;38;10 - 00;18;56;19

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. All the shows are posted on 16 podcast channels and the YouTube channel. So maybe you're that broker. Okay, that's got three clients in the Pareto Contrarian Re or

00;18;56;21 - 00;18;58;02

Cary Hall

the Berkeley Captive.

00;18;58;04 - 00;19;00;20

Cary Hall

400, 200, 300 employees.

00;19;00;22 - 00;19;19;24

Cary Hall

And you know what that bottom line number is going to look like when the reinsurance bill comes next year, because they had three major cancer claims, two of which were breast cancer. You could do a lot to eliminate that if you understood the Bexa model and how it works. So if you're a TPA, this is something you might want to think about.

00;19;19;24 - 00;19;37;05

Cary Hall

If you're a broker, you definitely should be thinking about it. All right. And if you're a human resource director, imagine what this would mean to the women in your company if they were told they could get this exam and do it in 30 minutes, in the convenience of the office. If they wanted to do that. We'll talk about all of that in this segment.

00;19;37;13 - 00;20;04;29

Cary Hall

To learn more about it, go to the website myBexa.com. myBexa.com. Do you want to talk to somebody? Call them ask for Elizabeth. She'll be happy to chat with you. 1-888-469-2392. 1-888-469-2392. Over dinner last night, we talked about a lot of different things, but she told some stories last night. You've probably I think you've done about 4 or 5 conferences here this year so far, if I remember correctly.

00;20;05;01 - 00;20;19;01

Cary Hall

Talk about some of it because we just talked about the inconvenience that having to lay on your belly and do this thing, 28 pounds of pressure. Talk about what you're hearing when you go to these conferences and women come up to you. Elizabeth.

00;20;19;01 - 00;20;38;10

Elizabeth Vire

Absolutely. So there's actually a few different things that I feel like we hear constantly. And it's so sad, really. It's interesting to be on this side of things. I knew breast cancer was a big deal. I just didn't realize how big of a deal it was. And, and yesterday at this conference that I was at, there were at least half a dozen women who were all breast cancer survivors.

00;20;38;18 - 00;20;56;02

Elizabeth Vire

That's a lot of women. Yes. Exactly. But the interesting thing is that you have these women who do have dense breast tissue. And the moment that doctor Monique starts to describe what the actual process or journey could be for a woman with dense breast tissue, you start to see this kind of light bulb go off, right?

00;20;56;02 - 00;21;14;01

Elizabeth Vire

And they're like, wait, there's something different that's out there. There's something different. That's an alternative to what I'm doing today that fits the needs that I have. The other thing is, you have these women who don't meet the age guidelines. And then and I'll tell you, I, I tell this story on a, on a pretty regular basis.

00;21;14;03 - 00;21;30;22

Elizabeth Vire

But there is there's a family member who is 24 and no family history, and she was diagnosed with what they thought was stage one and ultimately ended up being stage four. And that happened about two weeks before I took this job at Bexa. And that to me, like you just you never really quite think.

00;21;30;24 - 00;21;31;11

Cary Hall

24

00;21;31;11 - 00;21;31;25

Elizabeth Vire

00;21;31;25 - 00;21;32;13

Cary Hall

Years old.

00;21;32;13 - 00;21;50;27

Elizabeth Vire

24. Yeah. Stage four and no family history. So what happens whenever you feel that lump? And to doctor Moe’s point earlier you go in to see your provider and they say you're too young, you're fine, everything's normal. Come back again. Well we all know it's not easy to get into your PCP, right? You've got to wait. Typically, I know I have to wait 3 to 4 months if I were to go see mine.

00;21;50;29 - 00;22;06;21

Elizabeth Vire

And then on top of that, now you've got to have a script to even go in for a mammogram. If you have a concern, you should be able to go in and have that done. The other thing that I just heard a story yesterday. We had an examiner that was on site. She was providing demos and I went and asked this lady how it went.

00;22;06;23 - 00;22;25;21

Elizabeth Vire

And she said, in the past she's had two mammograms. She's 50. Her first one was okay. Her second one was so painful that she literally blacked out and they had ruptured a cyst. And it was because she had smaller breasts, but it was just it was this awful story that I was hearing. And then she said, I will never again get a mammogram.

00;22;25;29 - 00;22;45;17

Elizabeth Vire

And again, we're not anti mammography, but it's just to say there has to be an alternative solution that's out there. I fit one of the 62% of women above the age of 40 who do not have an annual breast screening, and that's kind of alarming based on the position that I'm in. But it's it's 100% true. I don't want the pain, I don't want I don't want any of that uncomfortable like... so it's just.

00;22;45;17 - 00;22;45;26

Elizabeth Vire

Yeah.

00;22;46;02 - 00;22;59;22

Cary Hall

So doctor, show the device. Why - how this is different. What it does. This is it. I mean, this this little machine that you're looking at right here is the whole device. So explain how this works.

00;22;59;23 - 00;23;05;04

Monique Gary

This is it. And you know, the first thing I'll say is this. If you told me 20 years ago that you could poop in a box and mail it.

00;23;05;07 - 00;23;08;01

Cary Hall

Right, well, there you go. Now, that's something I hadn't thought about, folks.

00;23;08;04 - 00;23;21;16

Monique Gary

Right. 20 years ago when I started practicing medicine, that you could do that I would have laughed out of the out of this booth and said, yeah, whatever. Okay. Yeah. And it's the same thing for every new innovation. So when we talk to doctors, they're like, okay, so if this is so good, then how come I didn't learn about it?

00;23;21;16 - 00;23;31;19

Monique Gary

How come I don't know about it? Because innovation is happening and we have to keep up with it. But how this works is my ten fingers, right? As magical as I think they are, I'm a surgeon. I think they do wonders.

00;23;31;20 - 00;23;32;11

Cary Hall

I'm sure you do.

00;23;32;11 - 00;23;48;21

Monique Gary

It right. The effectiveness of these ten fingers to find a cancer, to find a mass in the breast is like 50/50 flip a coin. It's called a clinical breast exam. And so what Bexa has done is that on the bottom of this device, there are not ten fingers, but 192 sensors.

00;23;48;26 - 00;23;49;11

Cary Hall

On that.

00;23;49;11 - 00;24;08;03

Monique Gary

Little this little device, 192 sensors that are arranged like a lattice. And everywhere where those two filaments overlap, it sends a signal up. And so as it glides along the breast, right. This is the clinical breast exam. As it glides along the surface of the breast, it looks for changes in the stiffness of the tissue below where it's gliding.

00;24;08;05 - 00;24;27;00

Monique Gary

Right. So think about it like fingers on a piano key or like, like hands gliding along something. And you're feeling for the changes in the stiffness. And where there's a cancer, the breast tissue is going to be stiffer. So it's looking for changes in that elasticity. It's stretchy. It's stretchy. It’s stretchy. Hmm. Something's pushing back on the sensor.

00;24;27;02 - 00;24;43;09

Monique Gary

And it can detect down to five millimeters. And that matters at six millimeters. Right a cancer that's aggressive triple negative the Her2 positive. They need aggressive chemotherapy that cost all of a sudden you talk about claims cost. The cost for some of those drugs through the roof.

00;24;43;14 - 00;24;58;15

Cary Hall

Well yeah. But what the other problem is you're talking about early detection using the standard methods where they're not even going in until they're 40. We're back to the 24 year old with stage four cancer and no history in her family. This changes that.

00;24;58;15 - 00;25;23;14

Monique Gary

This changes everything. But what this does what it does not do is it doesn't tell you if it's a cancer. It glides along. It finds the mass. Ultrasound defines the mass. So this is a handheld ultrasound right. And so you get two modalities in one. And this is important I'm going to come back to this because the cost in the time from a woman having a lump to getting a diagnosis can be weeks to months.

00;25;23;16 - 00;25;46;01

Monique Gary

I have a friend. She's a physician in Maryland. She's a primary care. It took her six months to get a diagnosis of DCIS stage zero. By the time she actually got the surgery, it was stage two, right? And so when you find a lump and you find it small and we got to talk about this, the reason we search for the lump is because the most common presentation of a cancer that's going to spread the way it starts is a lump.

00;25;46;03 - 00;26;02;22

Monique Gary

It starts as a mass 97% of cancers that go anywhere and that become stage four start like this as a lump. And so if you're going to save lives. If early detection is going to save life. Find the lump, find it fast, find it cheap. Tell her what it is and then tell her what to do about it.

00;26;02;24 - 00;26;08;01

Monique Gary

And do it in a sensitive and humane and compassionate way, person to person. That's the difference.

00;26;08;08 - 00;26;28;12

Cary Hall

They're not. They're not waiting 30 days to get through. So this is so you're the let's just say the employer sets this up in-house, decides we're going to start doing this. We've had four cancer claims. You got 300 women here in our company or whatever the case may be. We had four major claims last year. Of those four, three were not detected when they should have been.

00;26;28;12 - 00;26;33;18

Cary Hall

Two were below the age of 40. We're going to bring this in. How long to do that exam?

00;26;33;22 - 00;26;50;19

Monique Gary

This exam with the encounter with our examiners that we trained. Talk to the woman, ask her what she feels, go over the breast exam with her. You get the device. Any masses that are found, you get the secondary study 20 to 30 minutes, 20 minutes. 20 minutes you're putting your clothes on. 30 minutes you’re signing the survey.

00;26;50;19 - 00;26;51;27

Monique Gary

You're walking back to your desk.

00;26;52;00 - 00;26;53;05

Cary Hall

And they have the results.

00;26;53;05 - 00;27;13;19

Monique Gary

And they have the results. Now if a mass is found, it gets sent immediately to a fellowship trained breast radiologist. And you know, they're kind of like unicorns in this country right now. Finding a doctor, a radiologist who just does breast imaging they are in very high demand. But we have them and they will read that ultrasound. They'll look at the picture, the measurements, they'll get all the features that our ultra sonographer will send.

00;27;13;26 - 00;27;35;14

Monique Gary

And they'll say, you know what this looks like. You should check it again in six months. This this looks like a cyst. This looks like nothing. This looks like you need a biopsy. And so how many women are being referred for that? That's called the referral rate. Right. So when you compare how many women after a mammogram need more pictures, 13 to 21%. Bexa? 2 to 5% of women are going to need something after the Bexa exam.

00;27;35;20 - 00;27;53;01

Monique Gary

Because we find the mass, we tell you how suspicious it is and then those 2 to 5%, because that number is so small, they get a call from me or a member, my clinical team that says, hey, you had a breast exam with us. We saw something. Who's your PCP? Who's your gynecologist? Let's get you in to get some more imaging.

00;27;53;03 - 00;28;17;08

Cary Hall

And now let's go back to the insurance hurdle. You have the actual diagnostic information from the radiologist who knows how to read breast exams. So now the pre cert to get the rest of the testing done is a walk in the park because it's medically necessary. The magic two words. It's medically necessary because you just showed them. There it is.

00;28;17;11 - 00;28;21;24

Cary Hall

Here's the pictures. Here's the analysis. Yep it's all done. Get them in.

00;28;21;27 - 00;28;22;19

Monique Gary

Exactly.

00;28;22;22 - 00;28;23;18

Cary Hall

It's remarkable.

00;28;23;18 - 00;28;37;10

Monique Gary

And if they have problems, they call us and we find somebody in that market. Every new market we enter, I find doctors who are on standby waiting to receive these women. If they've got a breast issue, they know if I'm calling, they're going to see these women, they're going to get them in.

00;28;37;12 - 00;28;59;05

Cary Hall

It's remarkable. It can make a huge difference. You know, once again, I do these kinds of shows for a reason. This is technology that is not... most folks don't know anything about this. I certainly didn't before I met Elizabeth. It's remarkable what they're doing. They can change the way we're treating breast cancer in this country in terms of getting it done earlier, smarter and better.

00;28;59;08 - 00;29;21;13

Cary Hall

You want to learn more? mybexa.com is the website, mybexa.com. Phone number 1-888-469-2392. 1-888-469-2392. We'll be right back after the break. The doctors still in the house. Stay tuned. We've got more.

00;29;21;15 - 00;29;43;05

Cary Hall

Welcome back. You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show, broadcasting coast to coast across USA. You know, you've got women in your family, or your a guy listening to this, this is audience tilts a little bit toward men. And our women in audience capacity climbing every day. But nonetheless, I'm talking to you guys out there. You got a wife?

00;29;43;11 - 00;30;05;05

Cary Hall

She's under the age of 40. She's never done this. You need to talk to her, okay? You don't want to be the one with the 24 year old wife that's got stage four breast cancer. Because she didn't detect it wasn't detected early. Let her listen to this podcast. Let her listen to the broadcast, go up on the YouTube and tell them that it's there because it can make a big difference for them. The website is mybexa.com.

00;30;05;05 - 00;30;23;29

Cary Hall

It's a great website. Videos are up there. I spent a lot of time on it. Easy to understand. They've got a lot of initiatives up there. You'll want to take a look at mybexa.com. You want to call them? Learn about this. Learn how you can incorporate it into your company's health plan. Learn how you could do it as a broker, as a TPA, or a human resource director.

00;30;24;02 - 00;30;47;02

Cary Hall

1-888-469-2392. 1-888-469-2392. It's a great program, can make a big difference and can make a huge difference in terms of claims cost as you move forward. All right. So let's talk a little bit about this. Net Promoter Score I saw this I'm like okay what is the Net promoter score? So explain that Elizabeth and talk about what it is.

00;30;47;03 - 00;30;47;16

Monique Gary

Absolutely.

00;30;47;16 - 00;31;10;04

Elizabeth Vire

So it's important that we have a 98 NPS score okay. 98%. That's incredibly important, especially in the industry that we serve today. Because if we look at this with I mean, you're talking about carriers, or other vendor solutions that have, you know, teens or even like in the 30%. Right? So to have a 98 means that if we were to come back on site, people would opt in to doing a Bexa breast exam again.

00;31;10;11 - 00;31;27;08

Elizabeth Vire

So they truly love us. And I think the very unique part about what we do is one, we service self-funded employers. You can be fully insured as well, but the billing is a little different. So self-funded employers is very important. But when we come on site after an exam is performed, we ask that patient then or that member then.

00;31;27;13 - 00;31;39;29

Elizabeth Vire

Would you mind filling out a quick survey? The vast majority of women will fill out that survey. I think it's 97% of those women. And then that's where we get our NPS score of 98%. Remarkable. So, yes, women love us.

00;31;40;05 - 00;31;56;01

Cary Hall

The other thing is, from the employer's standpoint, I told you this dinner last night, if I'm the employer and I got 200 employees, and of that, 40% are women, and I bring this program in place and put it in and say, oh, by the way, you know, you guys, out there you, want to bring your wife's in here because they're covered.

00;31;56;04 - 00;32;23;00

Cary Hall

We'll do it for them. Okay? Whatever the case may be, the concern, the level of concern and care that shows by the employer, doctor, is like, they really do give a damn, don't they? You know, I had the folks up here, for Exemplar Care and Doctor John said, you know, the best thing that I ever heard, when I was actually in the clinic or working was an employee came in from a company and said, “you know, this is the only damn thing my employer does for me that’s any good”.

00;32;23;02 - 00;32;33;21

Cary Hall

And it was like, okay, well, but so the point is, it's engagement. And it shows in addition to the ROI, at the end of the day, it shows something.

00;32;33;23 - 00;32;52;00

Monique Gary

And what it really speaks to is the experience, right? A Bexa breast exam feels like wellness, and your typical breast exams kind of don't have that same sense. And that speaks to the quality of our examiners. They're the lifeblood of what we do. When I train these examiners, I train them to be compassionate, to ask questions, to engage with these women.

00;32;52;07 - 00;33;07;11

Monique Gary

And no woman ever walks out of the typical of breast experience and says, oh, I feel more educated about my breast now. I understand what I've got going on. They're like, crap. I hope they didn't find something this year. I guess I'll find out on my phone in you know, one week, two weeks whenever I get the results. But when women leave they say, “are you're going to be here tomorrow?”

00;33;07;13 - 00;33;28;04

Monique Gary

“Can I call my sister? Can I call my. You know, my coworker is on vacation. She says she'll come back early for this”. We have gotten those types of phone calls and those types of referrals because you go in, it's a ten by 12 room. It's a heated massage table, it's warm gel. It's a friendly face asking you questions, showing you what your breast exam is and encouraging you to do your own breast exam at home.

00;33;28;04 - 00;33;39;02

Monique Gary

And it's something found. She's looking at it right then and there and she said, we get this over to the radiologist and we're going to get your result right away, right. That process feels like wellness. That's what women want.

00;33;39;04 - 00;33;52;10

Cary Hall

Yeah. It not only does it feel like wellness, it is wellness. Okay. Because you're detecting this early and you're getting them into the protocol where if there's an issue, it's not going to be stage four.

00;33;52;15 - 00;34;01;00

Cary Hall

So what is so let's talk about that for just a second. You know in this country unfortunately we treat things after the fact.

00;34;01;00 - 00;34;20;04

Cary Hall

I like I said, at dinner last night, we put the Band-Aid on. Meanwhile you're bleeding out of your femoral artery. Okay. How much of a difference does this make? Will this make? You know, when you talk about overall the difference between reducing these stage four stage three cancers versus where we are now?

00;34;20;06 - 00;34;42;09

Monique Gary

Those are good questions. And the number one, the cost of breast cancer care in this country is totaling over $29 billion. Right. And stage four stage, when you go up in a stage, you're going up by 80,000 to $100,000 per stage that that insurer, that employer is paying right for that later stage diagnosis. So when you find it early, it saves money for the company for sure.

00;34;42;09 - 00;35;02;23

Monique Gary

But think about your employee, right? She now has a longer health span. She's more invested in that company. She has reduced absenteeism because she doesn't need chemotherapy. Right. She's going to stay with that company. Right? The GDP of an entire nation goes up when we invest in women's health solutions. And that's been shown. McKinsey did a great report on that last year where we talked about at the World Economic Forum last year.

00;35;02;29 - 00;35;12;10

Monique Gary

So investing in breast cancer care and early detection is dividends, right? Not just the direct cost but the indirect out of, you know, downstream cost for sure.

00;35;12;13 - 00;35;28;01

Cary Hall

So in the numbers number one high cost claim $528,000 okay. Number two $419,000 okay. So you're looking at you know, $1 million in claims here for each and every one that we're talking about.

00;35;28;03 - 00;35;42;24

Monique Gary

I’ll do you one better. The cost of a false positive. Right. That cost of the secondary imaging, the possible biopsy that may ensue the six month later follow up imaging that you need, that cost is totaling 2 billion to the health system for false positives.

00;35;42;24 - 00;35;45;26

Cary Hall

And that could be basically eliminated.

00;35;45;28 - 00;36;06;19

Monique Gary

Reduced significantly, significantly, dramatically. And this is where we've got to get smart about what we're doing. Because on the surgical side of things, I'm doing less and less surgery, right. They're doing shorter courses of radiation. Everything's getting smaller and de-escalated on the treatment side of things, as we find things early, but we're ramping up on the looking for things side of things, right.

00;36;06;19 - 00;36;18;24

Monique Gary

We're ramping up on early detection. So now you need a mammogram, ultrasound, MRI, follow it up in six months. You need a biopsy. You need pathology. All those costs are starting to snowball. There's a real problem in this country.

00;36;18;26 - 00;36;22;04

Cary Hall

And the way to solve that is with this kind of technology.

00;36;22;04 - 00;36;22;24

Monique Gary

Absolutely.

00;36;22;27 - 00;36;36;24

Cary Hall

It can make a huge difference, right? Yeah. You know, thank you guys, both of you, for coming in here. I'd love for you flying in here like you did. You changing your plans to be here? When we do these kinds of shows, that makes a difference. And I think this one is going to make a lot of difference.

00;36;36;24 - 00;36;56;07

Cary Hall

So I appreciate both very much. You know, I'll say it again. You know, I do these for a reason, and you're the reason out there in that audience listening to this. There's somebody out there listening this right now that knows there's an issue. There's somebody out there that’s a human resource director that knows she had 3 or 4 women last year that had major cancer claims.

00;36;56;09 - 00;37;14;23

Cary Hall

I've got a good friend, who just finished a she had stage four cancer. She's still going through radiology. She's still going through chemo. Okay. She has gotten her hair back. We had lunch the other day. This is a very difficult situation for for women. And it's something you can change if you want to change it. You want to learn.

00;37;14;25 - 00;37;32;10

Cary Hall

You have to take the first step or nothing's going to happen. It's just that simple, right? The way to do that is go to the website, mybexa.com. Look at it for yourself, all right. Or pick up the phone, go to the website and call them. Ask for Elizabeth. Have a conversation. They'll come out. They'll talk to you.

00;37;32;12 - 00;38;04;01

Cary Hall

Phone number 1-888-469-2392. 1-888-469-2392. And now I leave you with this thought from Doctor Martin Luther King. Americans must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will surely perish together as fools. Truer words were never spoken. Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate broadcasting coast to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. Goodbye America.

00;38;04;03 - 00;38;11;08

Unknown