September 6, 2025 • 38 mins
Today we learn about Bexa: A Revolutionary Early Detection Option that Dr. Monique Gary tells me is closing the gap and delivering peace of mind. Dr Gary says women have been in need of another early detection option and reminds us that to many women delay routine exams or avoid them all together. But unlike the common experience, Bexa is accurate and pain free and companies should include this benefit to their employees.
This is a "Must Hear" episode. Please listen and share, because breast cancer is the most common cancer among women—yet over 60% of those eligible aren’t getting mammograms. And for women who are under 40, pregnant, or avoiding mammograms, no real alternative has existed until now with this Doctor-led and developed Bexa Solution.
Also joining us is Elizabeth Vire, Bexa Chief Revenue Officer, who works with HR directors to bring this option to their workers.
This is Ep: 2124 of America's Healthcare Advocate.
Learn how you could do it as a broker, as a TPA, or a human resource director. : 1-888-469-2392 or visit https://www.mybexa.com/
As always, if you need help or have something to share contact me with this form on my website and let me know what's on your mind, issues you are dealing with, or other health, healthcare, and health insurance questions and concerns.
Visit: https://www.americashealthcareadvocate.com/contact-us
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate.
Show broadcasting coastto coast across USA.
Here on the HIARadio Network, you can learn more about us
by going to the websiteAmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email if you’ve got a questionor comment I'll be happy to respond to.
(00:24):
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 knowthat 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.
So the show is out there.
(00:45):
We've got about a halfa 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 oneyou might want to go up and listen to.
I think you're going to find it
pretty interesting in studio with metoday, Doctor Monique Gary.
She is the chief medical officer of Bexaand Elizabeth Vire.
(01:06):
She is the chief revenue officer of Bexa.
Welcome to both of you.
Thank you.
Flying in here from Philadelphiato be with us today.
I really appreciate that.
And you canceled a trip to get back hereand try to be on the show.
So thank you both for doing this.
So this is a show that we've talked about.
I've talked with Elizabethabout for some time when I met her
(01:26):
and we talked about this program,what they do, the technology.
I was floored by what it is.
You know, we try very hardon this broadcast to bring you things
that are leading edgemedical technology, leading
edge, cures that are being explored,things that are being done.
They're sometimes out of the box, likethe WAVi brain scan, like the Neuro20.
(01:48):
Well, this device is very much like that.
It's all about breast cancer.
And it's all aboutwhy this device can do a better job
than the conventional way we're treatingbreast cancer, and the conventional way
we're looking to find out whether womenhave the beginnings of breast cancer,
late stage breast cancer, whatever it is,we're going to explore all that today.
(02:08):
You're going to learn a lot. So, you know,
obviously this show is,
directed toward women who have issuesor 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.
So let's just start, Elizabeth.
So let's talk about Bexa.
(02:29):
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 isand how it works.
Absolutely.
Well, I always like to first start offwith what Bexa is not.
Just to make sure we're very clearfrom the very beginning.
So Bexa is not a competitorto mammography.
For those women above the age of 40
(02:51):
who are currently getting their annualbreast screening, it's amazing.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Bexa is also not a mammogram solution.
So Bexa is an alternative to mammography.
We are here to help close the annualscreening gap in two ways.
One, for those above the age of 40who are not getting their annual
breast screenings today due to pain,radiation inconvenience, delayed results,
and dense breast tissue.
(03:12):
And then two for thosewho do not currently meet the age
guidelines of mammography
unless they have some typeof family history in most cases.
So Bexa is a painless, radiationfree breast exam.
We have our examinerswho are certified breast sonographer
come on site to an employer's locationor to an on site clinic
to provide those examsthat last no longer than 30 minutes.
(03:33):
So very in and out again, convenient andwe have accurate and immediate results.
We're also density fiber cysticand breast implant independent.
And we service our men and womenabove the age of 18.
And again,you can be pregnant, breastfeeding
because we are radiation free.
So we really try to close that gap againof annual breast screenings.
But then we remove all the barriers as towhy women do not receive
(03:55):
their annual breast screeningsor can't today.
So doctor, how did this come to be?
Hey, I mean, we spent 2.5 hourslast night over dinner.
We had a wonderful timeand 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 thisto bring all this together?
And because it's completely differentthan what we're doing now.
(04:18):
Oh, it's it's completely out of the box,but it's not entirely new.
So the concept, the way Bexa worksis a process called elastography.
So it's looking at the stiffnessof the breast tissue.
An easy way to think about that.
It's like a sponge, right?
If your fingers are gliding alongthe sponge.
It’s spongy, it‘s spongy, it’s spongy.
If it hits an olive pit, all of a suddenthere's something stiffer in the tissues.
(04:39):
So that concept has been aroundsince the 80s, really 1986,
where we used to use thatfor finding cancers in the liver.
Now where it gets really interesting.
And this is the storytelling partof this conversation,
where we're telling storiesa little early,
is that it was developedand innovated by a gentleman
from the Harvard RoboticsLaboratory named Jaeyong,
whose mother had some breast issues,and she was very reluctant
(05:01):
to get her mammogram.
And he was working on the robotic haptics,like the fingers,
you know, how hard you press on the phoneand what happens as a result of that.
And sowhy can't I take this type of technology
and put it into somethingthat's not radiation or something handheld
to find masses in the breast,like that's what we should be doing.
And that's how Bexa was born.
It was initially called SureTouch.
(05:22):
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 addresswhen you get an email
from SureTouchwith SureTouch dot me.SureTouch.me.
Well okay. Hold on a minute.
There could be a problem with that.
Our our CEOis 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.
(05:44):
So what should we call it?
And he began to do tremendous amountsof market research with women.
And they said,we need a better breast exam.
Better breast exam.
Hence ‘Bexa’ was born.
And that's howit all came to be. Indeed. So
you know, Elizabeth said a couple thingsthat are interesting.
Age guidelines.
So one of the things that I thoughtwas interesting, when we looked at
(06:05):
statistics was the number of womennot getting exams.
How much of that falls to womenthat are below
the age where they qualify to go infor the mammogram?
And older womenI had this conversation with my wife.
I was talking about all of this was doingshow 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.
(06:26):
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. Oh, boy.
So you've openedthe can of worms here, right?
With the preventive test.
I'm good at that. But you are.
Not goodat getting them back into the can,
but I’m really good at opening it.
This this one's not going back in the can.
So, you know,there are clinical guidelines,
(06:48):
meaning what doctors think womenshould do to check every year
to make sure they're okayand that they don't have breast cancer.
And then there are other guidelines.
There are guidelines developed by folkswho maybe don't do anything
in the breast cancer spacewho are not oncologists.
They're not breast surgeons like myself.
And that's where the preventive task forcesort of falls in.
So the task forcegives us some recommendations
(07:08):
on when women, at averagerisk should start screening.
And every society, every majormedical 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.
No mutations in the genes... start at 40.
And we say go every year until you are...
until your lifeexpectancy is less than ten years.
(07:29):
Right? Now. Well, okay. So
how the hell do you
know when your life expectancyis less than ten years?
That's the part where I'm like, whoa.
So that's not the I'm.
76 years old.
I thoroughly believeshe's going to make it well past 86.
Why, I'm lost. We'll get this.
You're not the only one.
(07:50):
So we're all the doctorsbecause the task force says stop at 74.
Once you hit 74you don't have to go anymore.
So there are women who are 75who 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.
Why should I stop at 74?
So there's a lot of confusionin what we're recommending to women,
and it trickles down.
(08:10):
The docs are confused,the women are confused,
and you know what it means.Things are getting missed.
Yeah, things are getting mixedand things are being missed.
Okay.
And that's one of the reasonswhy 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 itversus getting the mammogram?
(08:32):
Is it easier?
Is it more convenient?What does that mean.
And we'll talk about some other things.
But when we come back from the breakwe'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 weedson how all of this works and what
you can expect.
If you want
to connect with these folks and learn moreabout their product and their services.
(08:54):
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'sHealthcare Advocate.
Broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
(09:15):
Don't go anywhere.The doctors in the house.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show, broadcasting coast
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
(09:36):
I want to say hello to our newestaffiliate, WZGM,
AM and FM 96.1, Asheville, North Carolina.
I want to thank Brian Siebold there.
He is the program directorfor putting us on the air.
Very happy to be in Asheville,North Carolina.
Hope you all are doing well down there
and recovering from that horrible floodand all the difficult times you had.
But, welcome to the family.
(09:58):
We're glad to have you on board in studiowith me, doctor Monique.
Gary, she is the chief medical officerfor Bexa and Elizabeth Vire.
She's the chief revenue officer.
Doctor Gary completed her medical degreeat Philadelphia College
of Osteopathic Medicine.
Her general surgerytraining at UMass, followed by breast
surgical oncology fellowship at GeorgetownUniversity Hospital.
(10:18):
She holds multiple faculty appointments.
Associate Professor of Surgery,PCOM Temple, University.
Associate Professor of Health Equitywithin Dartmouth University,
and a fellow of the American Collegeof Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncology,
and a master's degreein Molecular biology.
Probably knows a little bitabout the topic.
(10:39):
Right.
ElizabethVire is the chief revenue officer.
She has 15 years experience with revenuegrowth, leading
high performance salesteams, optimizing and market strategies.
And what Elizabeth brings to the tablehere.
And we're going to talk aboutthis later on.
We're going to do another show.
But we're going to talk a lotabout what this means.
And this is this is Elizabeth’s forte.
(10:59):
What does this meanto self-insured employers?
What does it mean to TPAs?
What does it mean to groupsthat want to reduce their overall cost?
That'swhere Elizabeth's going to really shine
in terms of discussingthat this is where her expertise is.
So two experts in here todayvery happy to have them.
All right.
You said something when we went on break.
(11:20):
Why do we need more solutions?
Why do we need them?
Well, it's not because the current onedoesn'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 detectionsgone up?
(11:41):
No, to a point.
And then they dropped back down.
And the reason has a lot to do with
why women aren't getting this one testthat they know saves lives.
If 1 in 8 of us would get it, if we wouldget 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. Right?
Or if you had 3D, sign me up for it.Oh, AI?
(12:02):
Now I'm going to stand in line for it.
There's something wrong with the processof 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.And they wear the pink shoes.
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 innovationto fill those gaps.
(12:22):
Not only that, the canceryesterday is not the cancer tomorrow.
But what does that mean?
Meaning, in my practice, I'm
seeing women who are youngerand younger schoolteachers in their 30s.
I'm seeing folks in their 20s get cancer,and all the statistics are showing
29 and 39.
And the guideline is 40 and above.
The guidelines 40 and above.
So we're missingthat whole class of women.
And so what we say,oh, we'll get through risk scoring
(12:45):
and know your family history.
80% of those young womenhave no family history of breast cancer.
Wow. So 80% have none.
Those young women are the one,the 29 to 39 year olds
who are getting breast cancerfaster than everybody else.
No family history.
A risk assessmentmight not have helped them.
So you just said something.
The 29 to 39 years old are getting breast
(13:07):
cancer faster than in the.
Yeah, what what do we do?
Any idea why that's happening?It's a separate show.
But there are things,environmental things.
There are things called endocrinedisruptors. Right.
What's messing with our hormones?What's in our food that we're eating?
What's messing with the inflammationin our bodies.
Right. Our hair products.
Right. Dyes.
There's so many things
(13:27):
that are contributing that we think
are contributing smoking, vaping, alcohol,sedentary lifestyle.
Covid really showed us thatthe health of this nation is very poor.
Oh, we're we'reabsolutely the worst. Yeah.
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 wherepeople are okay, you're 40 and above.
(13:49):
But what if you're a black woman like me,right.
We're getting breast cancer ten yearsyounger, more aggressive later stage.
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 calleddense breast.
And the FDA saysyou should get supplemental imaging.
We should do more stuff to look.
(14:10):
It’s like looking at a cloudy skylooking for cloud.
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 evidenceto suggest that.
So there's all this confusion.
Meanwhile women don't know what to do
and they're not getting theirimaging every year.
And so it's not a problemwith the technology.
But there is a problem with the process.
And that's where Bexa comes in as a reallysmart solution for adoption that works.
(14:34):
But there's a problem with acceptance.Yeah.
Because the women are saying,
not so much.
I don't want that.
Yeah I don't yeah, I'm busy.
I don't have time to mess with that, yadayada yada, yada, yada.
So we're missing this whole classwhere he was switched to the, you know,
those of us that are chronologicallychallenged and where that's at.
(14:57):
Okay.
And and as a result of that, you're havingthe numbers
are starting to creep up now. Yeah.
Just think about it.
Every year you goand they call you back and say,
oh, you got to get another testbecause you've got dense breast,
but it may notbe covered by your insurance.
So now you got to take another dayfrom work.
You got to find something to dowith the kids, with the elders,
something to do with the dinnerthat you were going to stop and pick up.
You got to move your plansand get another test.
(15:18):
It could be two weeks,it could be two months.
And then they say, oh, you going tocome 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 positivemeaning your mama was inconclusive.
We kind of see somethingand it might be might not be.
That process is so offputting to women that they say,
you knowwhat, I'm not doing that again this year.
And then if I heard you correctly,and this is interesting because I've been
(15:41):
in this industry for 30 plus years,it may not be covered by insurance.
So there are policiesthat 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.
So I'm just not going to do it precisely.
And have you if you've ever had an MRI,you go on that machine.
(16:01):
Once you get that dyethat makes your mouth water
and you're like,okay, I'm not doing this again.
And so all of these reasonsare compounding why we're finding
cancers at a later stage.
So we got to do something different.
We cannot continue to do the same thingsand expect different results.
Yeah, that's the definition of failure.
Precisely.And we're certainly failing. Yeah.
(16:23):
This you know, you said somethinglast 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 itwhen they go in for the breast MRI?
Oh, so you're on your stomachin this Superman pose.
(16:43):
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...You can't hear any music in that thing.
Superman, Superman pose. Yeah.
Now it's better than that. It'sbetter than the smash-a-graham, right?
It's better than squeezingit 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 everywoman MRIs, but the MRI find everything
(17:04):
and then you need ultrasounds after thatand then you need biopsies after that.
This whole process.
And in the process the women aren'tinformed 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.and what's the anxiety level?
My wife suffers from heart failure.
The first thing she does when she gets herlabs is goes right to the website.
(17:26):
She did this yesterday.
A couple of things were down.
She's like, I hold the phone.
You don't startinterpreting your own information here.
Let's go from there.
But the level of anxiety is huge, right?
You could have a cancer.
You may not know what to dofor weeks to months.
And that's the problem.
All right.
So now you know
when we come back from the break we'regoing to talk about the Bexa solution.
(17:47):
Now we've framed the problem.
We've talked about what's going on.
Now we're going to come backand 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.
You want to learn more about this?
Go to the website or give them a call.
(18:07):
You certainly mightwant to think about this
if you've got a self-funded planin a large employer group.
If you're a TPA, even if you're a brokeror human resource director,
might want to take a look at it.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
broadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Stay tuned.
We've got more.
(18:38):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
All the shows are posted on 16podcast channels and the YouTube channel.
So maybe you're that broker.
Okay, that's got three clientsin the Pareto Contrarian Re or
the Berkeley Captive.
400, 200, 300 employees.
(19:00):
And you know what that bottom line
number is going to look likewhen the reinsurance bill comes next year,
because they had three major cancerclaims, two of which were breast cancer.
You could do a lot to eliminate that
if you understood the Bexa modeland how it works.
So if you're a TPA, this is somethingyou might want to think about.
If you're a broker, you definitelyshould be thinking about it.
(19:22):
All right.
And if you're a human resource director,imagine what this would mean
to the women in your companyif 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'lltalk about all of that in this segment.
To learn more about it, go to the websitemyBexa.com.
myBexa.com.Do you want to talk to somebody?
(19:43):
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 yearso far, if I remember correctly.
(20:05):
Talk about some of it because we justtalked about the inconvenience
that having to lay on your bellyand do this thing, 28 pounds of pressure.
Talk about what you're hearingwhen you go to these conferences and women
come up to you. Elizabeth. Absolutely.
So there's actually a few different thingsthat I feel like we hear constantly.
And it's so sad, really.
(20:26):
It's interestingto be on this side of things.
I knew breast cancer was a big deal.
I just didn't realize how big of a dealit was.
And, and yesterdayat this conference that I was at,
there were at least half a dozen womenwho were all breast cancer survivors.
That's a lot of women.
Yes. Exactly.
But the interesting thing isthat you have these women
who do have dense breast tissue.
(20:46):
And the moment that doctor Monique startsto describe what the actual process
or journey could be for a woman with densebreast tissue, you start to see
this kind of light bulb go off, right?
And they're like, wait, there'ssomething different that's out there.
There's something different.
That's an alternative to what I'm doingtoday that fits the needs that I have.
The other thing is, you have these womenwho don't meet the age guidelines.
(21:08):
And then and I'll tell you, I, I tell thisstory on a, on a pretty regular basis.
But there is there's a family memberwho is 24
and no family history,and she was diagnosed
with what they thought was stage oneand ultimately ended up being stage four.
And that happened about two weeks beforeI took this job at Bexa.
And that to me, like you justyou never really quite think.
(21:30):
24 Years old. 24. Yeah.
Stage four and no family history.
So what happenswhenever you feel that lump?
And to doctor Moe’s point earlieryou 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 easyto get into your PCP, right?
You've got to wait.
Typically, I know I have to wait 3to 4 months if I were to go see mine.
(21:51):
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 ableto go in and have that done.
The other thingthat I just heard a story yesterday.
We had an examiner that was on site.
She was providing demos and I wentand asked this lady how it went.
And she said, in the pastshe's had two mammograms.
She's 50.
Her first one was okay.
(22:11):
Her second one was so painful
that she literally blacked outand they had ruptured a cyst.
And it wasbecause she had smaller breasts,
but it was just it was this awful storythat I was hearing.
And then she said, I will never againget a mammogram.
And again, we're not anti mammography,but it's just to say
there has to be an alternative solutionthat's out there.
I fit one of the 62% of womenabove the age of 40
(22:34):
who do not havean annual breast screening,
and that's kind of alarmingbased on the position that I'm in.
But it's it's 100% true.
I don't want the pain, I don't wantI don't want any of that uncomfortable
like... so it's just. Yeah.
So doctor, show the device.
Why - how this is different.
What it does. This is it.
I mean, this this little machinethat you're looking at right here
(22:56):
is the whole device.
So explain how this works.
This is it. And you know,the first thing I'll say is this.
If you told me 20 years agothat you could poop in a box and mail it.
Right, well, there you go.
Now, that's something I hadn't thoughtabout, folks.
Right.
20 years ago
when I started practicing medicine,that you could do that
I would have laughed out of the outof this booth and said, yeah, whatever.
Okay. Yeah.
And it's the same thingfor every new innovation.
(23:17):
So when we talk to doctors,they're like, okay,
so if this is so good, thenhow come I didn't learn about it?
How come I don't know about it?
Because innovation is happeningand we have to keep up with it.
But how this works is my tenfingers, right?
As magicalas I think they are, I'm a surgeon.
I think they do wonders.
I'm sure you do. It right.
The effectiveness of these ten fingersto find a cancer, to find a mass in
the breast is like 50/50 flip a coin.
(23:40):
It's called a clinical breast exam.
And so what Bexa has doneis that on the bottom of this device,
there are not ten fingers,but 192 sensors.
On that.
Little this little device, 192 sensorsthat are arranged like a lattice.
And everywhere where those two filamentsoverlap, it sends a signal up.
And so as it glides alongthe breast, right.
This is the clinical breast exam.
(24:01):
As it glides alongthe surface of the breast,
it looks for changes in the stiffnessof the tissue below where it's gliding.
Right.
So think about itlike fingers on a piano key or like,
like hands gliding along something.
And you're feelingfor the changes in the stiffness.
And where there's a cancer,the breast tissue is going to be stiffer.
So it's looking for changesin that elasticity.
(24:22):
It's stretchy.
It's stretchy.
It’s stretchy. Hmm.
Something's pushing back on the sensor.
And it can detect downto five millimeters.
And that matters at six millimeters.
Right a cancer that's aggressivetriple negative the Her2 positive.
They need aggressive chemotherapy
that cost all of a suddenyou talk about claims cost.
The cost for some of those drugsthrough the roof.
(24:43):
Well yeah.
But what the other problem isyou're talking about early detection
using the standard methods where they'renot even going in until they're 40.
We're back to the 24 year old with stagefour cancer and no history in her family.
This changes that.This changes everything.
But what this does what it does not dois it doesn't tell you if it's a cancer.
(25:03):
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 importantI'm going to come back to this
because the cost in the time from a womanhaving a lump
to getting a diagnosiscan be weeks to months.
I have a friend.She's a physician in Maryland.
(25:25):
She's a primary care.
It took her six monthsto get a diagnosis of DCIS stage zero.
By the time she actually got thesurgery, it was stage two,
right?
And so when you find a lumpand you find it small
and we got to talk about this,the reason we search for the lump
is because the most common presentationof a cancer that's going to spread
the way it starts is a lump.
(25:46):
It starts as a mass97% of cancers that go anywhere
and that become stagefour 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 isand then tell her what to do about it.
And do it in a sensitive and humaneand compassionate way, person to person.
(26:07):
That's the difference.
They're not.
They're not waiting30 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 companyor whatever the case may be.
We had four major claims last year.
Of those four, three were not detectedwhen they should have been.
(26:28):
Two were below the age of 40.
We're going to bring this in.
How long to do that exam?
This exam with the encounterwith 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 clotheson. 30 minutes you’re signing the survey.
(26:50):
You're walking back to your desk.
And they have the results.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 likeunicorns in this country right now.
Finding a doctor,
a radiologist who just does breastimaging they are in very high demand.
But we have themand they will read that ultrasound.
They'll look at the picture,the measurements,
(27:10):
they'll get all the featuresthat our ultra sonographer will send.
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 referredfor that?
That's called the referral rate. Right.
So when you compare how many women aftera mammogram need more pictures, 13 to 21%.
(27:30):
Bexa?
2 to 5% of women are going to needsomething after the Bexa exam.
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.
(27:53):
And now let's go back to the insurancehurdle.
You have the actual diagnostic information
from the radiologistwho knows how to read breast exams.
So now the pre certto get the rest of the testing done
is a walk in the parkbecause it's medically necessary.
The magic two words.
(28:13):
It's medically necessarybecause you just showed them.
There it is. Here's the pictures.
Here's the analysis. Yep it's all done.
Get them in.
Exactly. It's remarkable.
And if they have problems, they call usand we find somebody in that market.
Every new market we enter,
I find doctors who are on standbywaiting to receive these women.
If they've got a breast issue,they know if I'm calling,
(28:34):
they're going to see these women,they're going to get them in.
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'retreating breast cancer in this country
(28:56):
in terms of getting it doneearlier, smarter and better.
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.
(29:21):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's Healthcare
Advocate Show, broadcasting coastto coast across USA.
You know, you've got women in your family,or your a guy listening to this,
this is audiencetilts a little bit toward men.
And our women in audience capacityclimbing every day.
But nonetheless, I'm talking toyou guys out there.
(29:42):
You got a wife?
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 onewith the 24 year old wife that's got stage
four breast cancer.
Because she didn't detectit 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 becauseit can make a big difference for them.
(30:03):
The website is mybexa.com. It'sa 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 itinto your company's health plan.
Learn how you could do it as a broker,as a TPA, or a human resource director.
(30:24):
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 claimscost as you move forward.
All right.So let's talk a little bit about this.
Net Promoter Score I saw this I'm likeokay what is the Net promoter score?
(30:44):
So explain that Elizabeth and talkabout what it is.
Absolutely.
So it's important that we have a 98NPS score okay. 98%.
That's incredibly important, especially inthe industry that we serve today.
Because if we look at this withI 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 meansthat if we were to come back on site,
(31:07):
people would opt into doing a Bexa breast exam again.
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-fundedemployers is very important.
But when we come on siteafter an exam is performed,
we ask that patientthen or that member then.
(31:27):
Would you mind filling out a quick survey?
The vast majority of women will fill outthat survey.
I think it's 97% of those women.
And then that's where we get our NPSscore of 98%.
Remarkable. So, yes, women love us.
The other thingis, 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,
(31:48):
and I bring this program in placeand put it in and say, oh, by the way,
you know, you guys, out there
you, want to bring your wife's in herebecause they're covered.
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
(32:10):
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 clinicor working was an employee
came in from a company and said,
“you know, this is the only damn thingmy employer does for me that’s any good”.
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.
(32:33):
And what it really speaks tois the experience, right?
A Bexa breast exam feels like wellness,
and your typical breast examskind of don't have that same sense.
And that speaksto 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.
And no woman ever walksout of the typical of breast experience
(32:55):
and says, oh,I feel more educated about my breast now.
I understand what I've got goingon. They're like, crap.
I hope they didn't find somethingthis year.
I guess I'll find out on my phone in
you know, one week, two weekswhenever I get the results.
But when women leave they say, “areyou're going to be here tomorrow?” “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 callsand those types of referrals
(33:15):
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 encouragingyou to do your own breast exam at home.
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 toget your result right away,
right.
That process feels like wellness.
(33:37):
That's what women want.
Yeah.
It not only does it feel like wellness,it is wellness.
Okay.
Because you're detecting this earlyand you're getting them into the protocol
where if there's an issue, it'snot going to be stage four.
So what is so let's talk about thatfor just a second.
You know in this country unfortunatelywe treat things after the fact.
(34:00):
I like I said, at dinner last night,we put the Band-Aid on.
Meanwhile you're bleedingout of your femoral artery.
Okay.
How much of a difference does this make?
Will this make?
You know, when you talk about overallthe difference between reducing
these stage four stagethree cancers versus where we are now?
Those are good questions.
(34:21):
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 80,000to $100,000 per stage that that insurer,
that employer is paying rightfor that later stage diagnosis.
So when you find it early,it saves money for the company for sure.
(34:42):
But think about your employee, right?
She now has a longer health span.
She's more invested in that company.
She has reduced absenteeismbecause she doesn't need chemotherapy.
Right.She's going to stay with that company.
Right?
The GDP of an entire nation goes up whenwe invest in women's health solutions.
And that's been shown.
McKinseydid a great report on that last year
where we talked about at the WorldEconomic Forum last year.
(35:02):
So investing in breast cancer careand early detection is dividends, right?
Not just the direct costbut the indirect out of,
you know, downstream cost for sure.
So in the numbers number one high cost
claim $528,000 okay.
Number two $419,000 okay.
So you're looking at youknow, $1 million in claims here
(35:25):
for eachand every one that we're talking about.
I’ll do you one better.
The cost of a false positive.
Right.
That cost of the secondaryimaging, the possible
biopsy that may ensue the six month laterfollow up imaging that you need,
that cost is totaling 2 billionto the health system for false positives.
And that could be basically eliminated.
(35:45):
Reduced significantly,significantly, dramatically.
And this is where we've got to get smartabout what we're doing.
Because on the surgical side of things,I'm doing less and less surgery, right.
They're doing shortercourses of radiation.
Everything's getting smallerand de-escalated
on the treatment side of things,
as we find things early,
but we're ramping up on the lookingfor things side of things, right.
(36:06):
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.
And the way to solvethat is with this kind of technology.
Absolutely.
It can make a huge difference, right?
Yeah.
You know, thank you guys,both of you, for coming in here.
(36:28):
I'd love for you flying in herelike you did.
You changing your plans to be here?
When we do these kinds of shows,that makes a difference.
And I think this oneis going to make a lot of difference.
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 therein that audience listening to this.
There's somebody out there listening thisright now that knows there's an issue.
(36:49):
There's somebody out there that’sa human resource director that knows
she had 3 or 4 women last yearthat had major cancer claims.
I've got a good friend, who just finisheda 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 situationfor for women.
(37:10):
And it's something you can changeif you want to change it.
You want to learn.
You have to take the first stepor nothing's going to happen.
It's just that simple, right?
The way to dothat 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.
(37:32):
Phone number 1-888-469-2392.
1-888-469-2392.
And now I leave you with this thoughtfrom Doctor Martin Luther King.
Americans must learn to live togetheras brothers and sisters,
or we will surely perish togetheras fools.
Truer words were never spoken.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate broadcasting coast
(37:54):
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
Goodbye America.
And now America's Healthcare Advocate,Cary Hall.
Hello, America.
Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocate.
Show broadcasting coastto coast across USA.
Here on the HIARadio Network, you can learn more about us
by going to the websiteAmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
AmericasHealthcareAdvocate.com.
Send me an email if you’ve got a questionor comment I'll be happy to respond to.
(00:24):
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 knowthat 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.
So the show is out there.
(00:45):
We've got about a halfa 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 oneyou might want to go up and listen to.
I think you're going to find it
pretty interesting in studio with metoday, Doctor Monique Gary.
She is the chief medical officer of Bexaand Elizabeth Vire.
(01:06):
She is the chief revenue officer of Bexa.
Welcome to both of you.
Thank you.
Flying in here from Philadelphiato be with us today.
I really appreciate that.
And you canceled a trip to get back hereand try to be on the show.
So thank you both for doing this.
So this is a show that we've talked about.
I've talked with Elizabethabout for some time when I met her
(01:26):
and we talked about this program,what they do, the technology.
I was floored by what it is.
You know, we try very hardon this broadcast to bring you things
that are leading edgemedical technology, leading
edge, cures that are being explored,things that are being done.
They're sometimes out of the box, likethe WAVi brain scan, like the Neuro20.
(01:48):
Well, this device is very much like that.
It's all about breast cancer.
And it's all aboutwhy this device can do a better job
than the conventional way we're treatingbreast cancer, and the conventional way
we're looking to find out whether womenhave the beginnings of breast cancer,
late stage breast cancer, whatever it is,we're going to explore all that today.
(02:08):
You're going to learn a lot. So, you know,
obviously this show is,
directed toward women who have issuesor 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.
So let's just start, Elizabeth.
So let's talk about Bexa.
(02:29):
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 isand how it works.
Absolutely.
Well, I always like to first start offwith what Bexa is not.
Just to make sure we're very clearfrom the very beginning.
So Bexa is not a competitorto mammography.
For those women above the age of 40
(02:51):
who are currently getting their annualbreast screening, it's amazing.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Bexa is also not a mammogram solution.
So Bexa is an alternative to mammography.
We are here to help close the annualscreening gap in two ways.
One, for those above the age of 40who are not getting their annual
breast screenings today due to pain,radiation inconvenience, delayed results,
and dense breast tissue.
(03:12):
And then two for thosewho do not currently meet the age
guidelines of mammography
unless they have some typeof family history in most cases.
So Bexa is a painless, radiationfree breast exam.
We have our examinerswho are certified breast sonographer
come on site to an employer's locationor to an on site clinic
to provide those examsthat last no longer than 30 minutes.
(03:33):
So very in and out again, convenient andwe have accurate and immediate results.
We're also density fiber cysticand breast implant independent.
And we service our men and womenabove the age of 18.
And again,you can be pregnant, breastfeeding
because we are radiation free.
So we really try to close that gap againof annual breast screenings.
But then we remove all the barriers as towhy women do not receive
(03:55):
their annual breast screeningsor can't today.
So doctor, how did this come to be?
Hey, I mean, we spent 2.5 hourslast night over dinner.
We had a wonderful timeand 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 thisto bring all this together?
And because it's completely differentthan what we're doing now.
(04:18):
Oh, it's it's completely out of the box,but it's not entirely new.
So the concept, the way Bexa worksis a process called elastography.
So it's looking at the stiffnessof the breast tissue.
An easy way to think about that.
It's like a sponge, right?
If your fingers are gliding alongthe sponge.
It’s spongy, it‘s spongy, it’s spongy.
If it hits an olive pit, all of a suddenthere's something stiffer in the tissues.
(04:39):
So that concept has been aroundsince the 80s, really 1986,
where we used to use thatfor finding cancers in the liver.
Now where it gets really interesting.
And this is the storytelling partof this conversation,
where we're telling storiesa little early,
is that it was developedand innovated by a gentleman
from the Harvard RoboticsLaboratory named Jaeyong,
whose mother had some breast issues,and she was very reluctant
(05:01):
to get her mammogram.
And he was working on the robotic haptics,like the fingers,
you know, how hard you press on the phoneand what happens as a result of that.
And sowhy can't I take this type of technology
and put it into somethingthat's not radiation or something handheld
to find masses in the breast,like that's what we should be doing.
And that's how Bexa was born.
It was initially called SureTouch.
(05:22):
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 addresswhen you get an email
from SureTouchwith SureTouch dot me.SureTouch.me.
Well okay. Hold on a minute.
There could be a problem with that.
Our our CEOis 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.
(05:44):
So what should we call it?
And he began to do tremendous amountsof market research with women.
And they said,we need a better breast exam.
Better breast exam.
Hence ‘Bexa’ was born.
And that's howit all came to be. Indeed. So
you know, Elizabeth said a couple thingsthat are interesting.
Age guidelines.
So one of the things that I thoughtwas interesting, when we looked at
(06:05):
statistics was the number of womennot getting exams.
How much of that falls to womenthat are below
the age where they qualify to go infor the mammogram?
And older womenI had this conversation with my wife.
I was talking about all of this was doingshow 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.
(06:26):
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. Oh, boy.
So you've openedthe can of worms here, right?
With the preventive test.
I'm good at that. But you are.
Not goodat getting them back into the can,
but I’m really good at opening it.
This this one's not going back in the can.
So, you know,there are clinical guidelines,
(06:48):
meaning what doctors think womenshould do to check every year
to make sure they're okayand that they don't have breast cancer.
And then there are other guidelines.
There are guidelines developed by folkswho maybe don't do anything
in the breast cancer spacewho are not oncologists.
They're not breast surgeons like myself.
And that's where the preventive task forcesort of falls in.
So the task forcegives us some recommendations
(07:08):
on when women, at averagerisk should start screening.
And every society, every majormedical 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.
No mutations in the genes... start at 40.
And we say go every year until you are...
until your lifeexpectancy is less than ten years.
(07:29):
Right? Now. Well, okay. So
how the hell do you
know when your life expectancyis less than ten years?
That's the part where I'm like, whoa.
So that's not the I'm.
76 years old.
I thoroughly believeshe's going to make it well past 86.
Why, I'm lost. We'll get this.
You're not the only one.
(07:50):
So we're all the doctorsbecause the task force says stop at 74.
Once you hit 74you don't have to go anymore.
So there are women who are 75who 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.
Why should I stop at 74?
So there's a lot of confusionin what we're recommending to women,
and it trickles down.
(08:10):
The docs are confused,the women are confused,
and you know what it means.Things are getting missed.
Yeah, things are getting mixedand things are being missed.
Okay.
And that's one of the reasonswhy 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 itversus getting the mammogram?
(08:32):
Is it easier?
Is it more convenient?What does that mean.
And we'll talk about some other things.
But when we come back from the breakwe'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 weedson how all of this works and what
you can expect.
If you want
to connect with these folks and learn moreabout their product and their services.
(08:54):
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'sHealthcare Advocate.
Broadcasting coastto coast across the USA.
(09:15):
Don't go anywhere.The doctors in the house.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show, broadcasting coast
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
(09:36):
I want to say hello to our newestaffiliate, WZGM,
AM and FM 96.1, Asheville, North Carolina.
I want to thank Brian Siebold there.
He is the program directorfor putting us on the air.
Very happy to be in Asheville,North Carolina.
Hope you all are doing well down there
and recovering from that horrible floodand all the difficult times you had.
But, welcome to the family.
(09:58):
We're glad to have you on board in studiowith me, doctor Monique.
Gary, she is the chief medical officerfor Bexa and Elizabeth Vire.
She's the chief revenue officer.
Doctor Gary completed her medical degreeat Philadelphia College
of Osteopathic Medicine.
Her general surgerytraining at UMass, followed by breast
surgical oncology fellowship at GeorgetownUniversity Hospital.
(10:18):
She holds multiple faculty appointments.
Associate Professor of Surgery,PCOM Temple, University.
Associate Professor of Health Equitywithin Dartmouth University,
and a fellow of the American Collegeof Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncology,
and a master's degreein Molecular biology.
Probably knows a little bitabout the topic.
(10:39):
Right.
ElizabethVire is the chief revenue officer.
She has 15 years experience with revenuegrowth, leading
high performance salesteams, optimizing and market strategies.
And what Elizabeth brings to the tablehere.
And we're going to talk aboutthis later on.
We're going to do another show.
But we're going to talk a lotabout what this means.
And this is this is Elizabeth’s forte.
(10:59):
What does this meanto self-insured employers?
What does it mean to TPAs?
What does it mean to groupsthat want to reduce their overall cost?
That'swhere Elizabeth's going to really shine
in terms of discussingthat this is where her expertise is.
So two experts in here todayvery happy to have them.
All right.
You said something when we went on break.
(11:20):
Why do we need more solutions?
Why do we need them?
Well, it's not because the current onedoesn'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 detectionsgone up?
(11:41):
No, to a point.
And then they dropped back down.
And the reason has a lot to do with
why women aren't getting this one testthat they know saves lives.
If 1 in 8 of us would get it, if we wouldget 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. Right?
Or if you had 3D, sign me up for it.Oh, AI?
(12:02):
Now I'm going to stand in line for it.
There's something wrong with the processof 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.And they wear the pink shoes.
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 innovationto fill those gaps.
(12:22):
Not only that, the canceryesterday is not the cancer tomorrow.
But what does that mean?
Meaning, in my practice, I'm
seeing women who are youngerand younger schoolteachers in their 30s.
I'm seeing folks in their 20s get cancer,and all the statistics are showing
29 and 39.
And the guideline is 40 and above.
The guidelines 40 and above.
So we're missingthat whole class of women.
And so what we say,oh, we'll get through risk scoring
(12:45):
and know your family history.
80% of those young womenhave no family history of breast cancer.
Wow. So 80% have none.
Those young women are the one,the 29 to 39 year olds
who are getting breast cancerfaster than everybody else.
No family history.
A risk assessmentmight not have helped them.
So you just said something.
The 29 to 39 years old are getting breast
(13:07):
cancer faster than in the.
Yeah, what what do we do?
Any idea why that's happening?It's a separate show.
But there are things,environmental things.
There are things called endocrinedisruptors. Right.
What's messing with our hormones?What's in our food that we're eating?
What's messing with the inflammationin our bodies.
Right. Our hair products.
Right. Dyes.
There's so many things
(13:27):
that are contributing that we think
are contributing smoking, vaping, alcohol,sedentary lifestyle.
Covid really showed us thatthe health of this nation is very poor.
Oh, we're we'reabsolutely the worst. Yeah.
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 wherepeople are okay, you're 40 and above.
(13:49):
But what if you're a black woman like me,right.
We're getting breast cancer ten yearsyounger, more aggressive later stage.
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 calleddense breast.
And the FDA saysyou should get supplemental imaging.
We should do more stuff to look.
(14:10):
It’s like looking at a cloudy skylooking for cloud.
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 evidenceto suggest that.
So there's all this confusion.
Meanwhile women don't know what to do
and they're not getting theirimaging every year.
And so it's not a problemwith the technology.
But there is a problem with the process.
And that's where Bexa comes in as a reallysmart solution for adoption that works.
(14:34):
But there's a problem with acceptance.Yeah.
Because the women are saying,
not so much.
I don't want that.
Yeah I don't yeah, I'm busy.
I don't have time to mess with that, yadayada yada, yada, yada.
So we're missing this whole classwhere he was switched to the, you know,
those of us that are chronologicallychallenged and where that's at.
(14:57):
Okay.
And and as a result of that, you're havingthe numbers
are starting to creep up now. Yeah.
Just think about it.
Every year you goand they call you back and say,
oh, you got to get another testbecause you've got dense breast,
but it may notbe covered by your insurance.
So now you got to take another dayfrom work.
You got to find something to dowith the kids, with the elders,
something to do with the dinnerthat you were going to stop and pick up.
You got to move your plansand get another test.
(15:18):
It could be two weeks,it could be two months.
And then they say, oh, you going tocome 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 positivemeaning your mama was inconclusive.
We kind of see somethingand it might be might not be.
That process is so offputting to women that they say,
you knowwhat, I'm not doing that again this year.
And then if I heard you correctly,and this is interesting because I've been
(15:41):
in this industry for 30 plus years,it may not be covered by insurance.
So there are policiesthat 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.
So I'm just not going to do it precisely.
And have you if you've ever had an MRI,you go on that machine.
(16:01):
Once you get that dyethat makes your mouth water
and you're like,okay, I'm not doing this again.
And so all of these reasonsare compounding why we're finding
cancers at a later stage.
So we got to do something different.
We cannot continue to do the same thingsand expect different results.
Yeah, that's the definition of failure.
Precisely.And we're certainly failing. Yeah.
(16:23):
This you know, you said somethinglast 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 itwhen they go in for the breast MRI?
Oh, so you're on your stomachin this Superman pose.
(16:43):
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...You can't hear any music in that thing.
Superman, Superman pose. Yeah.
Now it's better than that. It'sbetter than the smash-a-graham, right?
It's better than squeezingit 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 everywoman MRIs, but the MRI find everything
(17:04):
and then you need ultrasounds after thatand then you need biopsies after that.
This whole process.
And in the process the women aren'tinformed 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.and what's the anxiety level?
My wife suffers from heart failure.
The first thing she does when she gets herlabs is goes right to the website.
(17:26):
She did this yesterday.
A couple of things were down.
She's like, I hold the phone.
You don't startinterpreting your own information here.
Let's go from there.
But the level of anxiety is huge, right?
You could have a cancer.
You may not know what to dofor weeks to months.
And that's the problem.
All right.
So now you know
when we come back from the break we'regoing to talk about the Bexa solution.
(17:47):
Now we've framed the problem.
We've talked about what's going on.
Now we're going to come backand 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.
You want to learn more about this?
Go to the website or give them a call.
(18:07):
You certainly mightwant to think about this
if you've got a self-funded planin a large employer group.
If you're a TPA, even if you're a brokeror human resource director,
might want to take a look at it.
We'll be right back after the break.
You're listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate
broadcasting coast to coast across USA.
Stay tuned.
We've got more.
(18:38):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's HealthcareAdvocate show broadcasting coast
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
All the shows are posted on 16podcast channels and the YouTube channel.
So maybe you're that broker.
Okay, that's got three clientsin the Pareto Contrarian Re or
the Berkeley Captive.
400, 200, 300 employees.
(19:00):
And you know what that bottom line
number is going to look likewhen the reinsurance bill comes next year,
because they had three major cancerclaims, two of which were breast cancer.
You could do a lot to eliminate that
if you understood the Bexa modeland how it works.
So if you're a TPA, this is somethingyou might want to think about.
If you're a broker, you definitelyshould be thinking about it.
(19:22):
All right.
And if you're a human resource director,imagine what this would mean
to the women in your companyif 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'lltalk about all of that in this segment.
To learn more about it, go to the websitemyBexa.com.
myBexa.com.Do you want to talk to somebody?
(19:43):
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 yearso far, if I remember correctly.
(20:05):
Talk about some of it because we justtalked about the inconvenience
that having to lay on your bellyand do this thing, 28 pounds of pressure.
Talk about what you're hearingwhen you go to these conferences and women
come up to you. Elizabeth. Absolutely.
So there's actually a few different thingsthat I feel like we hear constantly.
And it's so sad, really.
(20:26):
It's interestingto be on this side of things.
I knew breast cancer was a big deal.
I just didn't realize how big of a dealit was.
And, and yesterdayat this conference that I was at,
there were at least half a dozen womenwho were all breast cancer survivors.
That's a lot of women.
Yes. Exactly.
But the interesting thing isthat you have these women
who do have dense breast tissue.
(20:46):
And the moment that doctor Monique startsto describe what the actual process
or journey could be for a woman with densebreast tissue, you start to see
this kind of light bulb go off, right?
And they're like, wait, there'ssomething different that's out there.
There's something different.
That's an alternative to what I'm doingtoday that fits the needs that I have.
The other thing is, you have these womenwho don't meet the age guidelines.
(21:08):
And then and I'll tell you, I, I tell thisstory on a, on a pretty regular basis.
But there is there's a family memberwho is 24
and no family history,and she was diagnosed
with what they thought was stage oneand ultimately ended up being stage four.
And that happened about two weeks beforeI took this job at Bexa.
And that to me, like you justyou never really quite think.
(21:30):
24 Years old. 24. Yeah.
Stage four and no family history.
So what happenswhenever you feel that lump?
And to doctor Moe’s point earlieryou 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 easyto get into your PCP, right?
You've got to wait.
Typically, I know I have to wait 3to 4 months if I were to go see mine.
(21:51):
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 ableto go in and have that done.
The other thingthat I just heard a story yesterday.
We had an examiner that was on site.
She was providing demos and I wentand asked this lady how it went.
And she said, in the pastshe's had two mammograms.
She's 50.
Her first one was okay.
(22:11):
Her second one was so painful
that she literally blacked outand they had ruptured a cyst.
And it wasbecause she had smaller breasts,
but it was just it was this awful storythat I was hearing.
And then she said, I will never againget a mammogram.
And again, we're not anti mammography,but it's just to say
there has to be an alternative solutionthat's out there.
I fit one of the 62% of womenabove the age of 40
(22:34):
who do not havean annual breast screening,
and that's kind of alarmingbased on the position that I'm in.
But it's it's 100% true.
I don't want the pain, I don't wantI don't want any of that uncomfortable
like... so it's just. Yeah.
So doctor, show the device.
Why - how this is different.
What it does. This is it.
I mean, this this little machinethat you're looking at right here
(22:56):
is the whole device.
So explain how this works.
This is it. And you know,the first thing I'll say is this.
If you told me 20 years agothat you could poop in a box and mail it.
Right, well, there you go.
Now, that's something I hadn't thoughtabout, folks.
Right.
20 years ago
when I started practicing medicine,that you could do that
I would have laughed out of the outof this booth and said, yeah, whatever.
Okay. Yeah.
And it's the same thingfor every new innovation.
(23:17):
So when we talk to doctors,they're like, okay,
so if this is so good, thenhow come I didn't learn about it?
How come I don't know about it?
Because innovation is happeningand we have to keep up with it.
But how this works is my tenfingers, right?
As magicalas I think they are, I'm a surgeon.
I think they do wonders.
I'm sure you do. It right.
The effectiveness of these ten fingersto find a cancer, to find a mass in
the breast is like 50/50 flip a coin.
(23:40):
It's called a clinical breast exam.
And so what Bexa has doneis that on the bottom of this device,
there are not ten fingers,but 192 sensors.
On that.
Little this little device, 192 sensorsthat are arranged like a lattice.
And everywhere where those two filamentsoverlap, it sends a signal up.
And so as it glides alongthe breast, right.
This is the clinical breast exam.
(24:01):
As it glides alongthe surface of the breast,
it looks for changes in the stiffnessof the tissue below where it's gliding.
Right.
So think about itlike fingers on a piano key or like,
like hands gliding along something.
And you're feelingfor the changes in the stiffness.
And where there's a cancer,the breast tissue is going to be stiffer.
So it's looking for changesin that elasticity.
(24:22):
It's stretchy.
It's stretchy.
It’s stretchy. Hmm.
Something's pushing back on the sensor.
And it can detect downto five millimeters.
And that matters at six millimeters.
Right a cancer that's aggressivetriple negative the Her2 positive.
They need aggressive chemotherapy
that cost all of a suddenyou talk about claims cost.
The cost for some of those drugsthrough the roof.
(24:43):
Well yeah.
But what the other problem isyou're talking about early detection
using the standard methods where they'renot even going in until they're 40.
We're back to the 24 year old with stagefour cancer and no history in her family.
This changes that.This changes everything.
But what this does what it does not dois it doesn't tell you if it's a cancer.
(25:03):
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 importantI'm going to come back to this
because the cost in the time from a womanhaving a lump
to getting a diagnosiscan be weeks to months.
I have a friend.She's a physician in Maryland.
(25:25):
She's a primary care.
It took her six monthsto get a diagnosis of DCIS stage zero.
By the time she actually got thesurgery, it was stage two,
right?
And so when you find a lumpand you find it small
and we got to talk about this,the reason we search for the lump
is because the most common presentationof a cancer that's going to spread
the way it starts is a lump.
(25:46):
It starts as a mass97% of cancers that go anywhere
and that become stagefour 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 isand then tell her what to do about it.
And do it in a sensitive and humaneand compassionate way, person to person.
(26:07):
That's the difference.
They're not.
They're not waiting30 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 companyor whatever the case may be.
We had four major claims last year.
Of those four, three were not detectedwhen they should have been.
(26:28):
Two were below the age of 40.
We're going to bring this in.
How long to do that exam?
This exam with the encounterwith 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 clotheson. 30 minutes you’re signing the survey.
(26:50):
You're walking back to your desk.
And they have the results.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 likeunicorns in this country right now.
Finding a doctor,
a radiologist who just does breastimaging they are in very high demand.
But we have themand they will read that ultrasound.
They'll look at the picture,the measurements,
(27:10):
they'll get all the featuresthat our ultra sonographer will send.
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 referredfor that?
That's called the referral rate. Right.
So when you compare how many women aftera mammogram need more pictures, 13 to 21%.
(27:30):
Bexa?
2 to 5% of women are going to needsomething after the Bexa exam.
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.
(27:53):
And now let's go back to the insurancehurdle.
You have the actual diagnostic information
from the radiologistwho knows how to read breast exams.
So now the pre certto get the rest of the testing done
is a walk in the parkbecause it's medically necessary.
The magic two words.
(28:13):
It's medically necessarybecause you just showed them.
There it is. Here's the pictures.
Here's the analysis. Yep it's all done.
Get them in.
Exactly. It's remarkable.
And if they have problems, they call usand we find somebody in that market.
Every new market we enter,
I find doctors who are on standbywaiting to receive these women.
If they've got a breast issue,they know if I'm calling,
(28:34):
they're going to see these women,they're going to get them in.
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'retreating breast cancer in this country
(28:56):
in terms of getting it doneearlier, smarter and better.
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.
(29:21):
Welcome back.
You're listening to America's Healthcare
Advocate Show, broadcasting coastto coast across USA.
You know, you've got women in your family,or your a guy listening to this,
this is audiencetilts a little bit toward men.
And our women in audience capacityclimbing every day.
But nonetheless, I'm talking toyou guys out there.
(29:42):
You got a wife?
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 onewith the 24 year old wife that's got stage
four breast cancer.
Because she didn't detectit 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 becauseit can make a big difference for them.
(30:03):
The website is mybexa.com. It'sa 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 itinto your company's health plan.
Learn how you could do it as a broker,as a TPA, or a human resource director.
(30:24):
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 claimscost as you move forward.
All right.So let's talk a little bit about this.
Net Promoter Score I saw this I'm likeokay what is the Net promoter score?
(30:44):
So explain that Elizabeth and talkabout what it is.
Absolutely.
So it's important that we have a 98NPS score okay. 98%.
That's incredibly important, especially inthe industry that we serve today.
Because if we look at this withI 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 meansthat if we were to come back on site,
(31:07):
people would opt into doing a Bexa breast exam again.
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-fundedemployers is very important.
But when we come on siteafter an exam is performed,
we ask that patientthen or that member then.
(31:27):
Would you mind filling out a quick survey?
The vast majority of women will fill outthat survey.
I think it's 97% of those women.
And then that's where we get our NPSscore of 98%.
Remarkable. So, yes, women love us.
The other thingis, 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,
(31:48):
and I bring this program in placeand put it in and say, oh, by the way,
you know, you guys, out there
you, want to bring your wife's in herebecause they're covered.
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
(32:10):
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 clinicor working was an employee
came in from a company and said,
“you know, this is the only damn thingmy employer does for me that’s any good”.
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.
(32:33):
And what it really speaks tois the experience, right?
A Bexa breast exam feels like wellness,
and your typical breast examskind of don't have that same sense.
And that speaksto 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.
And no woman ever walksout of the typical of breast experience
(32:55):
and says, oh,I feel more educated about my breast now.
I understand what I've got goingon. They're like, crap.
I hope they didn't find somethingthis year.
I guess I'll find out on my phone in
you know, one week, two weekswhenever I get the results.
But when women leave they say, “areyou're going to be here tomorrow?” “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 callsand those types of referrals
(33:15):
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 encouragingyou to do your own breast exam at home.
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 toget your result right away,
right.
That process feels like wellness.
(33:37):
That's what women want.
Yeah.
It not only does it feel like wellness,it is wellness.
Okay.
Because you're detecting this earlyand you're getting them into the protocol
where if there's an issue, it'snot going to be stage four.
So what is so let's talk about thatfor just a second.
You know in this country unfortunatelywe treat things after the fact.
(34:00):
I like I said, at dinner last night,we put the Band-Aid on.
Meanwhile you're bleedingout of your femoral artery.
Okay.
How much of a difference does this make?
Will this make?
You know, when you talk about overallthe difference between reducing
these stage four stagethree cancers versus where we are now?
Those are good questions.
(34:21):
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 80,000to $100,000 per stage that that insurer,
that employer is paying rightfor that later stage diagnosis.
So when you find it early,it saves money for the company for sure.
(34:42):
But think about your employee, right?
She now has a longer health span.
She's more invested in that company.
She has reduced absenteeismbecause she doesn't need chemotherapy.
Right.She's going to stay with that company.
Right?
The GDP of an entire nation goes up whenwe invest in women's health solutions.
And that's been shown.
McKinseydid a great report on that last year
where we talked about at the WorldEconomic Forum last year.
(35:02):
So investing in breast cancer careand early detection is dividends, right?
Not just the direct costbut the indirect out of,
you know, downstream cost for sure.
So in the numbers number one high cost
claim $528,000 okay.
Number two $419,000 okay.
So you're looking at youknow, $1 million in claims here
(35:25):
for eachand every one that we're talking about.
I’ll do you one better.
The cost of a false positive.
Right.
That cost of the secondaryimaging, the possible
biopsy that may ensue the six month laterfollow up imaging that you need,
that cost is totaling 2 billionto the health system for false positives.
And that could be basically eliminated.
(35:45):
Reduced significantly,significantly, dramatically.
And this is where we've got to get smartabout what we're doing.
Because on the surgical side of things,I'm doing less and less surgery, right.
They're doing shortercourses of radiation.
Everything's getting smallerand de-escalated
on the treatment side of things,
as we find things early,
but we're ramping up on the lookingfor things side of things, right.
(36:06):
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.
And the way to solvethat is with this kind of technology.
Absolutely.
It can make a huge difference, right?
Yeah.
You know, thank you guys,both of you, for coming in here.
(36:28):
I'd love for you flying in herelike you did.
You changing your plans to be here?
When we do these kinds of shows,that makes a difference.
And I think this oneis going to make a lot of difference.
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 therein that audience listening to this.
There's somebody out there listening thisright now that knows there's an issue.
(36:49):
There's somebody out there that’sa human resource director that knows
she had 3 or 4 women last yearthat had major cancer claims.
I've got a good friend, who just finisheda 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 situationfor for women.
(37:10):
And it's something you can changeif you want to change it.
You want to learn.
You have to take the first stepor nothing's going to happen.
It's just that simple, right?
The way to dothat 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.
(37:32):
Phone number 1-888-469-2392.
1-888-469-2392.
And now I leave you with this thoughtfrom Doctor Martin Luther King.
Americans must learn to live togetheras brothers and sisters,
or we will surely perish togetheras fools.
Truer words were never spoken.
Thank you for listening to America'sHealthcare Advocate broadcasting coast
(37:54):
to coast across the USA here on the HIARadio Network.
Goodbye America.
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