Lucid Diagnostics Inc. (NASDAQ:LUCD) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And so as we’re expanding what’s a quite robust pipeline, we’re being much more proactive at the beginning about understanding the payer structure within each of these and working closely with the self-insured entity, typically, to set these things up. So we don’t know yet, but there’s certainly some hope and some promise that the prospects of the payment rates, the percentage of claims that get paid as a result of these tests could be higher. That’s our hope, obviously. And so it’s an attractive aspect of this business because it’s a large, high volume event. It’s a good chunk of testing. We can handle that chunk of testing and it’s with a single entity that. And our engagements with these entities with the firefighters in particular have been extraordinarily positive.

They understand the need. They’re very focused on protecting their members and it’s a very different dynamic than a typical — than engaged with a typical health plan. So we’re quite optimistic. I’m glad you brought that up, but we obviously have to demonstrate that.

Mike Matson: Okay. Understand. And then I think Dennis said the cash that you used about $30 million of cash in 2022, is that right? And then with the announcement earlier this year of the cost reductions, I think, you said, you’d reduce your cash burn by about 25%. So that seem — would seem to sort of imply like a low $20 million number for 2023. Is that reasonable?

Dennis McGrath: Yeah. The burn rate for the first half is going to be in the $7 million, $7.5 million range. And then should gradually decrease as operating expenses continue to remain flat and the collections, we are estimating will start to improve at a significantly higher rate that will bring the burn down for the second half of the year at a larger number.

Mike Matson: Sorry, the 7% to 7.5%, is that — that’s a quarterly number

Dennis McGrath: That’s the first half.

Mike Matson: That’s quarterly — that entire…

Dennis McGrath: Quarterly number. Yeah.

Mike Matson: Quarterly number. Okay.

Dennis McGrath: Yeah.

Mike Matson: All right. Got it. And then, yeah, so with MultiPlan, the covered lives there. How do those, I guess, the geographic concentration of that sort of match up to your sales force and test center locations?

Dr. Lishan Aklog: There they have MultiPlan with national.

Mike Matson: Okay.

Dr. Lishan Aklog: They are in every corner of the country. So we — our market access team does have a robust process, whereby they look at where payers are and how that aligns with our team. So that’s a process that we utilize. And some of the other contracts that we’ve had, those are regional and that has — that’s much more actionable that MultiPlan is really a national plan. They have their primary PPO network, a complementary PPO network. So there’s lots of opportunities to engage all across the country.

Mike Matson: Okay. Got it. And then, finally, I apologize if you’ve mentioned this earlier and I missed it, but MolDX, I mean, you discussed the clinical utility efforts, but when do you think you could make — take another shot at getting MolDX coverage?

Dr. Lishan Aklog: Oh! Just to be clear. No. There’s no other shot. The shot is already out there. We’re just waiting. Yeah. So there’s nothing more for us to do. We went through the process last year where upon publication of the draft LCD, we participated both with MolDX, as well as with Noridian, that covers our laboratory through the open meeting process, as well as the common period. Once that’s submitted, there’s nothing for us to do. It’s just a waiting game. So it’s on their desk. They’re looking at it and they’ll go back to it at their time. If you recall, it took quite a while from the ingrain submission to even get the draft LCD published. So we make no particular predictions about when that will happen. But you did — you made a good point in that linking at the clinical utility.