American individuals and insurance companies spend more than $5.3 trillion on healthcare annually. More than 80% of that goes to treating chronic conditions and late-stage diseases that potentially could have been caught early, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
But, one CEO is turning that model on its head, putting more resources into preventative care, rather than end-stage treatment, with the aim of saving both lives and money.
In 2018, Andrew Lacy founded Prenuvo, a company offering full-body preventative MRIs. Prenuvo now has 17 clinics across North America, Australia and the UK, and celebs fans in Kim Kardashian, Olivia Wilde and others. Lacy has plans to open more locations, and he’s betting that he can remake America’s largest sector.
“You can imagine how much more efficient healthcare could be if we caught everything early,” Lacy told me in an interview at a Prenuvo clinic on Manhattan’s West Side.
MRIs can detect cancers, aneurysms, and organ abnormalities that other imaging misses. But, in traditional healthcare settings, you typically see a doctor, get blood tests, try an X-ray, maybe a CT scan, and only get an MRI months later if all else fails.
“MRI is the most accurate imaging modality for our organs, but it’s the last thing you’re ever given,” Lacy explained. “You jump through pyramids of tests first. We inverted that pyramid.”
Of course, such high-tech healthcare comes at a cost. Prenuvo isn’t covered by insurance, so patients must pay the $2,500 cost of a full-body scan out of pocket. (It is eligible for HSA/FSA reimbursement.) But, that’s far less than the $20,000 many hospitals would charge for such a procedure, according to Lacy.
“One in five people come to us because it’s more expensive to get a single body part screened at another facility [compared to a full body scan at Prenuvo],” he said.
For many, the cost of Prenuvo is well worth it. The company’s full-body MRI takes just 45 minutes and can detect cancer at stage one, clinically significant aneurysms, and many diseases before they become chronic. About 1 in 20 Prenuvo patients gets a high-risk finding that needs follow-up, and 2% to 2.5% get a cancer or aneurysm diagnosis.
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“The fundamental assumption we have in healthcare is if you feel fine, you must be healthy,” Lacy explained. “And we all intuitively know that this isn’t true.”
Lacy, 50, started his career in technology and telecom and wanted to bring a consumer-friendly mindset to healthcare.
After getting his own preventive MRI scan on a trip to Vancouver, Canada, at the recommendation of a friend, he was “blown away” by what he learned about his health. He saw a massive market opportunity.
“I staked out this clinic for several months, met hundreds of patients,” he recalled. “I saw all these people have profoundly positive experiences and, I thought, the world needs access to this.”
So he applied Silicon Valley’s favorite strategy: Take an existing technology, make it drastically more user-friendly, and build a direct-to-consumer business around it. In the process, he’s raised $250 million at an undisclosed valuation.
Traditional healthcare prioritizes insurance companies over patients, which means providers have little incentive to make experiences pleasant. At Prenuvo, comfort is paramount. The staff is friendly, the lighting is warm and pleasant and patients can even watch Netflix during the scan.
For skittish patients like me, the ability to watch “Bridgerton” makes it possible to survive — and even somewhat enjoy — what is otherwise a nerve-wracking, claustrophobia-inducing experience. There’s still the background noise you get with any MRI, but, with Netflix to relax me, I hardly noticed.
While Prenuvo scans might seem like a luxury available only to those who can pay out of pocket, Lacy is pushing to democratize the procedure.
He’s optimistic that insurers could eventually cover them — pointing to the fact that mammograms and infertility treatments have only become widely covered in recent decades due to customer demand.
Additionally, he believes that artificial intelligence could eventually reduce scan times from 45 minutes to 15 minutes and help radiologists work more efficiently, bringing costs down.
He’s also pursuing government contracts, hoping that large-scale adoption could lower prices the way it has for other technologies.
And, while some Prenuvo critics assert that the scans needlessly create anxious patients, Lacy’s data shows the opposite. Three out of ten Americans already live with health anxiety, while less than one percent felt unnecessarily worried after Prenuvo results.
He said, “We’re in the business of curing anxiety, not creating it.”
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