Five ways to widen care—and sharpen what you offer

LongevityBiz Newsletter 9
Wednesday, October 14, 2026

A nationwide route can make home treatment easier to navigate
Cala made kIQ Plus available by prescription nationwide on October 6. Neurology and movement-disorder practices can give appropriate patients a clearer route to treatment by organizing prescribing, setup and follow-up rather than leaving them to assemble those steps alone.

The benefit is temporary relief in the treated hand
The wrist-worn device stimulates the median and radial nerves. Its FDA-cleared indication covers temporary post-stimulation relief in the treated hand for adults with essential tremor and for specified postural and kinetic hand-tremor symptoms in adults with Parkinson’s disease.

Practices can build a supported home-treatment pathway
The practical choice for a neurology practice is whether to assign staff to patient selection, prescribing, setup and follow-up. That pathway can help patients use the device correctly and give clinicians a way to track adherence, functional use and the duration of relief.

Coverage determines who can use that pathway
The cited Medicare coverage criteria apply to qualifying essential-tremor patients; they do not establish coverage for Parkinson’s tremor. Commercial coverage varies, while eligible veterans may receive the device through the VA. Practices should verify coverage before ordering.

The new controls still need real-world assessment
kIQ Plus adds three selectable waveforms and before-session calibration. The FDA record supports temporary relief, not disease modification or superior results from those new features, so practices will need their own experience with patient use and duration of benefit.

What clinics can sell next
Our analysis: if you run a clinic, Circle offers a concrete example of what to sell after the blood test: interpretation, coaching and scheduled follow-up. That gives patients a reason to maintain a relationship with the practice—and gives the practice a potential recurring service business.

What Circle offers
Circle says its Toronto clinic began opening in phases from October 13. Its Canadian website lists an introductory individual price of $149 per month. Membership starts with physician-selected baseline testing of about 68 to 69 measures, a physical assessment, interpretation, recommendations and coaching.

How follow-up works
At six months, Circle describes retesting abnormal or suboptimal markers, not automatically repeating the full baseline panel.

What membership pays for
Circle’s fee schedule says membership pays for uninsured components, while provincially insured physician services are billed separately to the provincial plan. Membership is neither required for insured services nor a route to preferential insured access.

The investor question
For investors, the question is whether the uninsured-service income can support the staffing, coaching and follow-up promised. Circle provides an actual offering to examine; appointment capacity remains unverified during its phased opening, and retention and profitability are unproven.

A visible consumer price gives clinics a comparison point
Labcorp and Thrive Global launched Thrive 5 on October 13 for $159. For a genuinely comparable package, that price gives preventive and longevity clinics a useful benchmark for deciding how to price and describe their own offer.

Five measurements provide a compact risk snapshot
The package includes ApoB, hs-CRP, HbA1c, blood pressure and BMI. Together they give consumers a limited snapshot of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic risk factors.

Microsteps add information after the results
Thrive Global supplies informational “Microsteps” tied to the results. The five measurements do not amount to a complete preventive evaluation, and the package has not been shown to change behavior, biomarkers or health outcomes; the Microsteps are information rather than clinician interpretation or treatment.

Clinics can make the difference in their bundle visible
Our analysis: clinics charging more can explain the difference through concrete additions such as clinician interpretation, a broader or different testing bundle, longitudinal tracking, treatment planning or accountable follow-up. The $159 figure is a comparable-package reference point, not a ceiling for offers whose components and clinical service differ.

Purchase and payment are straightforward
Adults ages 18–100 can buy the test through Labcorp OnDemand, visit a participating Labcorp location and generally receive results within one to two days after the sample arrives. HSA and FSA payment is accepted. Unlike earlier Function–Getlabs, GENFIT–Labcorp and Apple–Quest developments centered on testing access or distribution, this launch puts a visible consumer price on a defined package.

Memory clinics gain an outside route for two kinds of support
For clinics in the four states where the companies overlap, the partnership offers an external referral option for patient treatment and caregiver support rather than requiring the clinic to provide both itself. NewDays and Nolia announced the joint pathway on September 28.

Each company contributes a distinct service
NewDays offers visits with licensed cognitive clinicians and personalized exercises for home use. Nolia provides dementia assessment, care planning, navigation, behavioral support and caregiver education. A clinic can use the combination to address patient and caregiver needs through one referral relationship.

Four states define the current opportunity
NewDays lists six states, but the two companies’ footprints currently overlap in California, Florida, Texas and Washington. Memory clinics in those states can confirm intake availability and decide which families fit each service.

Payment follows two separate paths
NewDays says its clinical visits are Medicare-covered, but patients should confirm what Medicare covers for each visit and exercise and what they will owe. Nolia’s GUIDE services have separate eligibility rules: patients need confirmed dementia, Original Medicare Parts A and B as primary coverage, a qualifying residence, voluntary alignment and CMS confirmation. Medicare Advantage, PACE and hospice enrollment are excluded, and only eligible GUIDE services have no cost-sharing.

The partnership now has to prove the handoff
The announcement establishes complementary services and a referral relationship, but it does not yet provide evidence of completed handoffs or of effectiveness produced by the partnership itself. Clinics can judge the pathway by whether referred families successfully enter and use the appropriate services.

New Jersey patients gain a connected menopause-care route
Hackensack Meridian Health and Midi Health launched an integrated perimenopause and menopause service on October 14. Patients can begin with Midi’s virtual specialists while remaining connected to HMH physicians, hospitals, imaging centers and other local services.

Virtual specialists can direct local follow-through
Midi clinicians assess concerns including hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood changes and weight changes and can discuss hormonal or nonhormonal options. Shared records and referrals are designed to connect those virtual visits with HMH’s regional network when patients need imaging, specialists or in-person care.

The model offers a build-versus-partner choice
For health-system executives, the arrangement shows one way to add focused virtual capacity without assembling the entire specialty service internally. Midi supplies the virtual clinicians; HMH supplies the regional network and in-person pathway.

This is more than a distribution agreement
Issue 1 covered Midi’s insured distribution through AgeWell. The HMH development adds a named health-system integration, shared records and routes into local imaging and specialty services, making Midi part of a regional care model rather than a standalone access channel.

Patients can see the entry terms now
The current HMH–Midi access terms say no referral is required. Insurance coverage depends on the plan; published self-pay prices are $250 for an initial visit and $150 for follow-ups. The partnership is an announced operating model, and completed handoffs and integration performance have yet to be demonstrated.

Clinics can revisit patients whose Zepbound care stalled because of CVS Caremark’s formulary exclusion, opening a potential pathway back into appropriate care. The change took effect October 1, 2026; it was announced by CVS Health on May 28.

CVS Caremark restored Zepbound as an additional preferred option on its common commercial formulary templates. Preferred status can improve access, but each employer or plan sponsor decides whether to cover weight-management drugs and may customize its formulary. Eligibility, prior authorization and out-of-pocket cost still depend on the patient’s actual plan; Lilly directs practices to verify individual benefits and authorization requirements.

For clinics, the next step is to identify commercially insured CVS Caremark patients whose care stopped at the formulary barrier, rerun benefits verification, and offer clinical review when the updated benefit supports it.

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