Prescribe FIT, a pioneering provider of remote patient monitoring (RPM) technology and lifestyle health coaching solutions, is thrilled to announce the successful completion of its Series A round of funding. Over the past year, Prescribe FIT has experienced phenomenal growth, tripling in size while focusing on the root causes of orthopedic patients’ musculoskeletal conditions. Their virtual program not only improves surgical and non-surgical outcomes but also helps prevent future injuries and improve each patient’s overall well-being.
“They’re helping physicians look like heroes in their local community,” said Mike Kaufmann, a Prescribe FIT board member and former CEO of Cardinal Health. “It’s amazing to see the effect an orthopedic surgeon can have on a patient’s overall health and well-being. Patients are leaving life-changing testimonials on their practice’s websites. They even have patients driving across the state to find a practice that offers the Prescribe FIT health coaching program.”
One of their patients, Shawna Ott recently said, “Dr. Crawford at JIS Orthopedics agreed to do my knee replacement but suggested I lose 30lbs before the surgery. I have struggled with being overweight my whole life and have always done some type of ‘yo-yo dieting’ but Prescribe FIT has totally changed my life! Before Prescribe FIT, I was miserable, depressed, hopeless, no energy, in pain constantly, and short of breath just walking in my house to the bathroom. Now I feel great! I am able to walk around the block, or play in the yard with my granddaughter, or go do different activities with her that I wasn’t able to do before. As of today, I have lost 106lbs with Prescribe FIT.”
As the company gears up to scale its operations, this funding round includes notable contributions from Jim Grote, Tamarind Hill, and Jobs Ohio Growth Capital. Additional investors include seasoned executives and orthopedic surgeons such as Dr. Keith Berend, Dr. David Dickerson, Tom DiMarco, Tom Feeney, Mike Kaufmann, Dr. Adolph Lombardi, Jr., Dr. Mark Malinowski, and Matt Scantland.
“We are incredibly grateful for the continued support of our current investors and the new partnerships we’ve formed,” said Brock Leonti, CEO and Founder of Prescribe FIT. “This funding allows us to continue to enhance our technology in a capital-efficient manner, expand our team through responsible hiring, and ultimately transform more patients’ lives.”
The company plans to launch several innovative solutions designed to extend care and improve the day-to-day lives of more patients. These include remote therapeutic monitoring (RTM) for pain reduction and mobility enhancement, a smoking cessation program geared towards surgical optimization, and an AI-driven solution to boost patient engagement.
Prescribe FIT’s new technology leader, Amer Ghanem, expressed enthusiasm about the future: “There’s an amazing opportunity here to completely change the way we think about healthcare in America. New technologies will lead that charge. We’re closely monitoring how AI can contribute to a smarter healthcare experience with improved outcomes.”
Prescribe FIT will also use the funds to hire additional health coaches, which differentiates the company by ensuring personalized care from real human beings.
“Patients want proactive, preventative, personalized care,” said Leonti. “Over the next year, our goal is to expand our technology to make our human-centered care more scalable. The aim is to improve outcomes with smarter technology, whether it’s for patient outreach to candidates who’ve been prescribed the program, or for patients who have been actively participating in our program for years.”
Today, 80% of Prescribe FIT’s patients stay active in the program for at least nine months. Patients typically see 5.4% body weight loss in the first 16 weeks which also results in 82% of patients in severe pain seeing a reduction and 81% of patients with limited mobility seeing an improvement. Some patients have been in the program for over 1,000 days, lost as much as 173lbs or 43% of their starting body weight, and reduced their BMI by as much as 27 points. Patients have also gone from 10 to 0 on the 10-point pain scale and 10 to 25 on a 25-point mobility scale.
“Our virtual health coaches are real people who build meaningful relationships with each patient by utilizing behavior science and motivational interviewing to provide more comprehensive and consistent musculoskeletal care,” said Jackie Snyder, VP of Clinical Affairs at Prescribe FIT. “We are different because we meet you where you are on your journey to better health. Prescribe FIT is not about fad dieting or gimmicky workout plans. Our health coaches help you make subtle changes to what you eat and how often you move — one day at a time. We’re a lifestyle modification program so it’s not the quick fix most Americans are accustomed to today. It is definitely a healthier option though.”
Prescribe FIT’s innovative remote patient monitoring program expands orthopedic practice resources to offer a personalized lifestyle coaching program that is unique to each patient’s specific needs. But it all starts with a proactive patient outreach program designed to educate patients on the correlation between their lifestyle, weight, and orthopedic issues. The outreach is co-branded for each orthopedic practice and includes encouragement from their physician to schedule their first health coaching call.
“We know patients want their doctors to be more proactive about their overall well-being versus the reactive Band-Aid approach we have today,” said Ryan Pratt, VP of Marketing & Patient Outreach at Prescribe FIT. “Study after study shows that patients also prefer virtual care. Patient outreach took off during COVID-19 and is becoming the standard in healthcare today. Our solution delivers what patients really want from their doctor and the rave reviews from our participating patients prove it.”
One Prescribe FIT patient, Jeanne Bortle said: “Thank you for chasing me down, sending multiple emails, calling me to answer questions, and encouraging me to start this program. I was diehard against it at first and didn’t think it would work. But now after just 100 days, I’m down 25lbs and 14% of my starting body weight – at 68 years old! Prescribe FIT would be a wonderful gift for everyone! I sincerely hope you continue to chase down whoever else needs to transform their life!”
The 5-star reviews are not only on Prescribe FIT’s website and mobile app, but also on their partner practice’s websites. A recent recommendation by Andrea Fernendez on EmergeOrtho’s Facebook page states:
“My Primary Care Provider recommended me to EmergeOrtho for my hip pain. I saw Dr. Popa and he referred me to Prescribe FIT to help me with my weight loss journey. After waiting for approval from my insurance, I was connected with a health coach, Teja. She is a pleasure to talk to, understands my health situation, and is working very hard to help me reach my weight loss goal. I highly recommend EmergeOrtho since they actually care for their patients!”
Another patient Janet E. wrote a review on Orthopaedic Associates of Florida’s Yelp page: “Because I want to postpone knee replacement surgery, my prescription from Dr. Tenholder for Prescribe FIT has been a blessing. With the weekly encouragement of my health coach, Fran, I have lost 20 pounds [in two months] by establishing better nutrition habits. And, I expect more results as I add more physical activity into my plan. My knee pain has decreased and overall I feel better. Looking better in a smaller clothing size is equally motivating.”
Prescribe FIT has not only helped patients lose over 100lbs and reduce BMIs by more than 20pts, but they pride themselves on improving patients’ quality of life. Patients have reported improvements in energy, sleep, mood, and more.
“Our tagline is ‘We transform life(styles)’ or ‘We transform life by transforming lifestyles’ and it’s so true.” said Kelly Locker, Patient Referral Manager at Prescribe FIT. “My team talks to hundreds of patients every day interested in joining our program and it’s amazing how many are just thankful for this opportunity to get healthy the right way and the encouragement from their doctor. Then every Thursday at Noon we have a team meeting with all our health coaches where they share success stories and non-scale victories of their patients. It’s my favorite part of the week every week.”
Prescribe FIT’s lifestyle health coaching program focuses on improving daily habits—such as nutrition and physical activity—to build sustainable healthy practices that not only address the root causes of orthopedic issues but also prevent other diseases. Studies show that simple lifestyle changes can also: prevent up to 80% of premature heart disease, stroke and Type 2 Diabetes cases; prevent up to 40% of cancer diagnoses; and lower the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60%.
“Most chronic diseases are linked to smoking, alcohol, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and obesity,” said Jack Gainer, President and COO at Prescribe FIT. “It’s an epidemic in America today. More than 40% of adults in the United States are obese and 55% of patients presenting to orthopedic clinics are obese. We’re not only tackling the Orthobesity crisis but addressing the larger $1.1 trillion annual healthcare spending problem in America caused by chronic conditions. It has to get better, and it will with our help. Our country is on the brink of embracing a value-based care model that will revolutionize healthcare for Americans.”
At its core, Prescribe FIT is an insurance-reimbursable ancillary service covered by 4 RPM CPT codes that were first introduced by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2018. Today, both Medicare and Medicaid offer reimbursement for RPM services, including patient setup & education, transmission of data every 30 days, and monthly interpretation & management. Many commercial insurers have also recognized the value of RPM, extending coverage to include these services. As RPM gains traction and delivers proven results, expect broader acceptance and possibly increased reimbursement rates from payers.
“We have found a significant difficulty with declining reimbursements and the ability to run a patient-centered orthopedic practice,” said Dr. David Dickerson, Orthopedic Surgeon & Owner of Performance Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. “Prescribe FIT has provided us an ancillary service that allows to generate income and continue to provide a patient-centered approach to wellness and joint health.”
Prescribe FIT aims to be an extension of every private orthopedic practice in the country. In 2023, they expanded to practices from Hawaii and Washington to New Jersey and Florida.
“We’ve had so much success over the past year that we’ve had to create a waitlist for other specialties eager to join us,” said Amanda Pinney-Kolon, VP of Physician Partnerships at Prescribe FIT. “We averaged 1 new partner physician per year in 2023. We really have become the only musculoskeletal solution of its kind. Now we’re not just the leader in orthopedic weight loss or lifestyle health, and not just the leader in orthopedic remote patient monitoring, but we’re making a shift in what we do that better aligns with what the orthopedic industry wants and needs, which includes weight loss but that isn’t the focal point. Together with our partners, we’ve grown to become the ‘Leader in Orthopedic Patient Optimization’ to continue to expand care beyond the office and ultimately improve patient outcomes and population health.”
The CDC defines population health as “an interdisciplinary, customizable approach that allows health departments to connect practice to policy for change to happen locally. This approach utilizes non-traditional partnerships among different sectors of the community – public health, industry, academia, health care, local government entities, etc. – to achieve positive health outcomes.”
The team at Prescribe FIT envisions a world of healthy people supported on their wellness journey. Similar to the demand from healthcare providers around the country, Prescribe FIT has been forced to create a waitlist for patients from non-partner practices and other healthcare specialties. Today, patients cannot sign up for Prescribe FIT without a prescription from a partner provider. This Series A round of funding won’t change that model, but as more orthopedic providers from around the country offer the service, more and more patients will have access. One patient specifically sought out a provider who offered the program:
“I drove 50 miles just to find an orthopedic practice that offered the Prescribe FIT health coaching program,” said Susan Mandelbaum.
“If you’re interested in losing weight, reducing pain, improving mobility, or just getting healthier the right way, tell your doctor about us,” says Brock Leonti. “We’d love to chat. We’d love to help. And this Series A round of funding will accelerate our ability to just that – help more people get healthier and get back to the lives they want to live.”
Published on June 20, 2024
