Leading early childhood tech business Novita Healthcare (ASX: NHL) has skyrocketed as much as 350% over the past two days on news its TALi Detect program is approved for reimbursement in the United States.
Shares in Novita were trading as high as 5c, up 354% on Wednesday’s close of 1.1c, the day before the announcement that US patients can now receive reimbursement for using its breakthrough TALi Detect attention screen program which targets attention in children. The development allows for patient reimbursement under a CPT code.
The news allows for the initial deployment of TALi Detect during the current quarter in the US with Duke University Psychology, Neuroscience and Medical Centre to deploy TALi to approximately 2,000 children.
Novita managing director Glenn Smith said the U.S. clinical market represented a massive opportunity for TALi.
“Leveraging this CPT Code will assist us in securing relevant channel partners and customers in order to realise that opportunity,” he said.
Smith said on average in the U.S. every classroom of 30 students had up to 3 children with ADHD with 6.1 million children diagnosed with ADHD currently in the U.S.
As such, we are committed to ensuring that children have access to the TALi technology platform as we believe the technology can significantly improve their lives and reduce health care expenditure,” he said.
“With TALi Detect, we’re taking the first step in screening and identifying this major global issue which is now recognised as the most commonly reported childhood issue. And then, with our already released TALi Train program, offering a digital therapeutic delivered through a game-based program that actually trains the brain and delivers clinically proven results.”
Novita Chair Sue MacLeman said access to reimbursement in the US was a significant barrier to the adoption of emerging health technologies.
“Leveraging CPT Codes will drive patient use and help us achieve our stated growth and company mission objectives,” MacLeman said.
In the US, research indicates students with ADHD incurred a higher annual cost to the U.S. Education system. Specifically, a student with ADHD incurred an average annual incremental cost to society of $5,007, as compared to $318 for students in the comparison group.
These results suggest prevention and intervention strategies are greatly needed to offset the large financial impact of educating youth with ADHD.
Novita will now begin to create and deploy the relevant information to physicians in the U.S. to enable use of the TALi technology.
The technology has been designed in collaboration with experts in cognitive science at Monash University with TALi Detect supported by an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centre project grant.
