Irvine-based PatientFi LLC has started a new platform to offer Botox and other aesthetics products and services on a subscription model.
It’s launched an “aesthetics membership platform” called Privi that allows users to pay for services such as four annual injections of Botox for $99 a month.
Other subscription services that go up to $269 a month include lip filler, laser resurfacing and body contouring.
“There was no subscription platform in one of the fastest-growing industries in the world,” Chief Executive Todd Watts told the Business Journal. “Privi is the first and only one of its kind in medical aesthetics. Consumers have never seen anything like this.”
The global noninvasive aesthetic treatment market is expected to almost double to $85.6 billion in 2024. Today, there are nearly 40,000 medical providers in the U.S. who offer noninvasive treatments to patients.
A large problem faced by clinics is that patients often seek such services annually, but face sticker shock and may seek lower prices at other clinics, Watts said.
“Sometimes it’s $700 to $800 each time a patient comes in,” Watts said. “Clinics worry about losing patients who might be price shopping.”
3,000 Clinics
Watts, who has an MBA from Yale University, has worked on Wall Street at the N.Y. office at J.P. Morgan where he advised companies on capital raising and risk management as a member of the Consumer, Healthcare and Retail Investment Banking Coverage Group.
He worked for almost five years as head of operations at Newport Beach’s Alphaeon Corp., which provides credit cards to finance health procedures.
In 2017, Watts and Scott Jorgensen, who also worked at Alphaeon, started PatientFi, which Watts said has a different model than Alphaeon.
PatientFi provides loans from $200 to $40,000 to pay for large ticket aesthetic procedures. It now has about 3,000 clinics that use its services.
PatientFi collects fees on transactions from both clinics and financial entities that buy its loans. The company generates about $25 million in annual sales and currently has 70 employees with plans to expand more, Watts said.
He said the company plans to stay in Irvine because Orange County has become the hub of medical aesthetics with firms here like Botox maker Allergan Aesthetics, the world leader in injections to remove wrinkles, and Evolus Inc. (Nasdaq: EOLS), which was spun out of Alphaeon and has a $500 million market cap.
“Orange County is the intersection of a very vibrant medical aesthetics industry and a lot of financial services,” Watts said. “It’s been a very productive place to recruit.”
The Trend
Health industry professionals are flocking to provide medical services where patients pay out of pocket rather than services that rely on reimbursements by government entities like Medicare, which is constantly trying to cut costs.
“More revenue and more margin are where people will flock to,” he said. “We’re right at the forefront.”
The company spent several years building Privi, which was rolled out April 24. About 90% of PatientFi’s practices have thus far signed up for Privi.
It might expand Privi to other recurring services that have large out-of-pocket fees, such as clinics for dentistry, veterinaries and fertility.
“These are big one-time costs that happen every year,” Watts said. “Privi is the future of medical aesthetics.”
