Medifast, Inc. (LFMD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Greetings, and welcome to today's conference to Medifast and LifeMD Collaboration Announcement Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Steve Zenker, Vice President, Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Good morning. By now, everyone should have access to the press releases that went out this morning at approximately 6 a.m. Eastern Time. They are also available on the Investor Relations section of Medifast website at www.medifastinc.com and LifeMD's website at www.lifemd.com, along with some supplemental slides. This call is being webcast, and replay will also be available on both Medifast and LifeMD's websites. Before we begin, we would like to remind everyone that today's prepared remarks contain forward-looking statements, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. The words believe, expect, anticipate and other similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on them. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this call. Medifast and LifeMD assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made in today's press releases or call. And with that, I would like to turn the call over to Medifast's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dan Chard.

Thanks, Steve, and thanks, everyone, for joining us to learn more about the exciting news we announced this morning. Joining me today is Justin Schreiber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LifeMD. In addition, Jim Maloney, Chief Financial Officer of Medifast; and Marc Benathen, Chief Financial Officer of LifeMD, will be available during the Q&A portion of the call. Today, we will provide more details on our new collaboration and how our companies complement each other in the -- in our effort to deliver a comprehensive approach to help, starting with weight management. We will touch on each company's overall business strategy and then provide more color about how this new collaboration will operate. I'll also touch on Medifast's capital allocation plans for the future, including the decision to discontinue our dividend to aggressively focus our investment efforts on customer acquisition and transformation growth opportunities for the years ahead. We'll then turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A. First, some background on Medifast for anyone on the call who is perhaps less familiar with the company. Medifast has developed deep roots in weight management since we were founded by a physician more than 40 years ago. We're the health and wellness company, known for our health and wellness brand, OPTAVIA, a leader in the weight management space. OPTAVIA grew into a $1 billion consumer brand within these 5 years, thanks to our independent OPTAVIA Coaches, community, scientifically developed products and clinically proven plans that power a holistic approach to health and wellness. Our scalable habit-based and coach-guided approach provides our customers with support around weight loss and lifestyle enhancement, along with the support of a community of individuals going through similar journeys, all with the goal of helping to create a sustainable. Healthy lifestyle that can last a lifetime. That model drove rapid growth for a number of years. We've certainly seen some challenges over the past year or so as consumer behavior in relation to health and wellness has shifted. Realizing that the industry is changing as a result of the unprecedented popularity of prescription GLP-1 medications, we have prioritized tapping into this promising area as well as undertaking a number of other growth initiatives. We remain highly committed to our sustainable growth model with a relentless effort on -- focus on delivering 15% annualized revenue growth and generating a 15% operating margin in pursuit of delivering meaningful returns to stockholders. Our Fuel for the Future savings initiative has produced important process and cost efficiencies ahead of schedule. And we're now utilizing our investment firepower, backed by a strong balance sheet with no debt, to power transformation across our whole business. I'll now turn the call over to Justin to give a brief overview of LifeMD, and then we'll discuss the opportunity ahead as we collaborate to penetrate a medically supported weight loss market.

Thanks, Dan. On behalf of the entire LifeMD team, we are excited about our new collaboration with Medifast, and Marc and I are delighted to be participating on today's call. For those of you who are not familiar with our company, LifeMD is a leading provider of virtual primary care that has conducted over 800,000 consults. Our fastest-growing vertical is our weight management offering, which helps patients access GLP-1 medications. We leverage a vertically integrated proprietary digital care platform with our 50-state affiliated medical group and U.S.-based patient care center to provide quality, affordable care. Our telehealth offerings are differentiated by our end-to-end platform, which enables specialized treatment as well as laboratory and pharmacy services. In addition to virtual primary care services, we have our established lifestyle Healthcare business, anchored by RexMD, which is our [ Men's Health ] brand; and our noncore WorkSimpli subsidiary, which have both significantly outperformed in terms of growth and profitability. In April of this year, we launched our weight management program, which has scaled rapidly due to the incredible consumer interest in GLP-1 therapeutics, supported by our industry-leading affiliated 50-state medical group and proprietary telehealth platform. We have differentiated this offering as a comprehensive program that is fully integrated with our primary care services and offers a holistic range of services, including physician visits, diagnostics, lifestyle support and access to GLP-1 medications for eligible patients. This holistic positioning is key not only to the weight management program success but also to the collaboration with Medifast that we are announcing today. We believe the integration of our weight management program with access to Medifast's OPTAVIA Coach-guided lifestyle approach will deliver the most comprehensive and most effective weight management program available in the market today. Through this powerful combination, our collective goal is for our patients to reach and to maintain their weight loss and wellness goals. I'll speak more on that in a moment, but for now, I'll turn things back to Dan.

Thanks, Justin. Medically supported weight loss, particularly the GLP-1 medications, have captured substantial attention over the course of the past 12 months and represent a significant opportunity for Medifast and LifeMD. The addressable market is already estimated at $9 billion and is expected to reach up to $100 billion by 2030, according to multiple Wall Street analysts. . In addition to the medications that are currently approved for obesity, there are many more new anti-obesity drug molecules in discovery and in different phases of clinical development. These include some that are potentially more effective or are easier to use than today's offerings, including via oral administration. It's anticipated that up to 3% to 10% of the U.S. population will be prescribed GLP-1 medications by the year 2030, depending on the number of variables, including efficacy of the medications, their cost, whether they are covered under public and private health care plans, and the development of other delivery systems like oral administration. Earlier this year, Medifast commissioned an extensive and independent market research study to understand consumer attitudes towards this class of medications. The role of our coach-led, habit-based lifestyle programs might play in this new environment. There were two key takeaways from that research: First, we learned that the large segment of our addressable market is very interested in medically supported weight loss solutions. And second, this segment is particularly interested in support beyond a prescription, including advice and partnership, to incorporate healthy eating and exercise into their lifestyle. These people do not see weight loss medications as a lifelong commitment but something that when paired with lifestyle medication can help them make a long-lasting change. And many GLP-1 medications for weight loss are being prescribed with the guidance that users should be seeking lifestyle improvements in order to create a sustainable long-term health and wellness success. With this in mind, we launched a pilot initiative in June of this year, with LifeMD to explore how we might incorporate weight loss medications into our coach-centered business model. The pilot gave us some important insights around positioning and approach and clarity that the 3-way partnership between customer, clinician and coach was something that would resonate strongly with consumers. The feedback from both coaches and customers has been extremely strong, and we believe we've only just begun to scratch the surface of what's possible. That pilot process affirmed that LifeMD is an ideal collaborator in this dynamic space as we look to telehealth support for our medically supported weight-loss solution. It's abundantly clear that customers are looking for a single innovative model of care that links lifestyle and medical solutions. And as a leading provider of nationwide virtual health care by affiliate Board-certified clinicians, LifeMD stands out [ for ] a personalized approach to care that closely aligns with ours. Together, we can forge a comprehensive solution that combines LifeMD's weight management platform and support of infrastructure with our powerful coaches, education, community-based model and nutritionally balanced approach. Justin?

The collaboration between Medifast and LifeMD is an important step forward for our companies and also helps us in our mission to combat the escalating public health crisis of obesity. We have three primary shared goals: First, enhancing access to high-quality medical providers and related health and wellness support services; second, helping further improve long-term weight management results through a combination of medical weight loss and lifestyle and wellness strategies; and third, advancing population access to medically supported treatment options. As I mentioned consistently in prior earnings calls, LifeMD's weight management program has seen tremendous and growing demand since day 1. As part of our agreement, Medifast has made a $20 million capital commitment to LifeMD, including $10 million in payments to support the collaboration, including funding key enhancements to LifeMD's platform, operations and supporting infrastructure, as well as a $10 million purchase of LifeMD common stock. As part of this investment, Dan Chard will be receiving an observer role on LifeMD's Board of Directors. Medifast's 40-year history as a physician-founded company and leadership position in the weight management space make them the ideal partner for LifeMD. Their powerful coach network, clinically proven plans and holistic approach have helped millions of people transform their lives for the better, which perfectly complements our go-to-market strategy. LifeMD and Medifast have a shared philosophy of prioritizing holistic care through strong relationships that makes this a natural collaboration. Under the terms of our agreement, we expect to, in a future state, develop an integrated weight management program, allowing customers to receive a bundle of medical services, coaching and wellness services, community support and OPTAVIA nutritional products. LifeMD will work on developing and implementing the technology and infrastructure for the collaborative program, funded in part by the $10 million Medifast contribution I mentioned previously. Both companies are expected to participate in marketing activities for the program, including advertising and promotions. It is currently anticipated that the bundled program should be fully operational by the latter half of 2024. As the first phase of the collaboration prior to availability of the fully bundled service, LifeMD and OPTAVIA will begin offering each other's weight management services through LifeMD's affiliated 50-state medical group and OPTAVIA coaches nationally, allowing our customers and patients access to a full range of comprehensive weight loss services. I do want to say that the LifeMD management team has been very impressed with the team at Medifast in our interactions to date, and we're excited about building our relationship and impacting more lives over the coming months and years. I believe that Medifast has the most robust, experienced and effective coaching and lifestyle program in the industry. And as Dan mentioned in his earlier remarks, we know that our patients desire these services and that they increase the effectiveness of patients' weight loss efforts. We are extremely excited that Medifast chose to collaborate with LifeMD and believe this further reinforces our position as a leader in telehealth. Together, I'm confident we will continue to disrupt and become leading forces in the massive addressable market for weight loss. Dan?

As well as the investments just outlined by Justin, Medifast expects to continue to invest in our long-term growth strategy to improve customer acquisition, customer experience and our digital capabilities. We're looking to drive substantial customer acquisition as well as broaden awareness and audience with a comprehensive and new national marketing campaign. Clearly, our Fuel for the Future cost savings initiatives provides some of the financial firepower for this investment. But to further support these efforts, including the equity investment in LifeMD and other efforts to grow the medically supported weight loss business, Medifast's Board of Directors has elected to discontinue the company's quarterly cash dividend payouts effective immediately. We believe that discontinuing our dividend at this time is in the best interest of the company and its stockholders as it allows us to redirect capital to invest in technology and in growth initiatives to improve customer acquisition and customer experience that we believe will generate higher long-term stockholder returns. In addition, it will allow us to opportunistically make stock repurchases when management and the Medifast Board decides that, that is appropriate. We believe that much of the funds previously earmarked for dividends, will be utilized in these efforts to grow the business. Transformation is written into the DNA of our company. Throughout our history, we have adapted our approach to drive growth and take advantage of opportunities as they emerge. Over recent months, we have been working diligently to drive deeper change that reflects the shifting nature of the health and wellness market, and that diversifies our revenue streams. In September, Medifast launched the new OPTAVIA ACTIVE line and entered the sports nutrition market, targeting those wanting to enhance their health and wellbeing through exercise. Today, we launched two new product bundles, which include the OPTAVIA ACTIVE products, designed specifically for those utilizing medically supported weight loss. Evidence suggests that the loss of lean muscle mass can range from 20% to 50% of total weight loss for those using weight-loss medications. OPTAVIA provides the tools needed to make a healthy lifestyle second nature at the start of the medically weight loss journey and while transitioning off the medication. Lastly, we are currently preparing to launch a sizable effort regarding company-led customer acquisition efforts. These efforts include seeking to expand our demographic reach, which includes a particular focus on Hispanic communities. And we continue to consider geographic expansion outside the United States. The addition of medically supported weight loss solutions through the collaboration announced today is a critical step we are taking in building a total lifestyle company that is truly reflective of the way that people consider health and wellness in 2023. With that overview, let's open up the line for questions. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Jim Salera with Stephens, Inc.

Dan, Justin, appreciate all the color on the partnership. I was wondering if you guys could offer us some perspective of how this looks from the consumers' perspective for each of your different platforms. So if I'm an OPTAVIA consumer or if I'm a LifeMD client, how does the cross-sell to the other's product look from a consumer that's engaging with one of your products currently?

Sure, Jim. This is Dan. Let me take a shot at that, and I'll let Justin add some color to it as well. When we transformed our business 6 years ago, we did it with several insights, which are relevant as we talk about this next transformation. We knew that customers did better with coaches, we knew that they did better when they were part of a community and when they learned habits rather than a diet. And so those are the three things that allowed us in 2017 to transform the business on the integrated coach model and unlock the value, significant value over the next 6 years. . When we -- now that we've been looking at this change environment that we're currently involved in, one of the things that we know is that 96% of all prospective consumers, who are interested in improving their health, particularly through weight loss, are aware and understand that they need lifestyle modification in order to achieve that. And then only 11% of those are -- or 17% of those believe that they can do that or are confident that they can do that on their own. So the change in the transformation we're going through today with Medifast in partnership through this agreement, this collaboration with LifeMD allows us to bring to prospective consumers the support that they need to initiate both the lifestyle change, but also to do it with these medical breakthroughs that have taken place with the introduction of GLP-1 drugs. So in essence, the coaching component is still critical and the habits to our model as well as the habits-based system is also critical to it. So our coaches will have the additional opportunity to create a partnership with a clinician. So the model that we're looking at, and it has been executed over the last 6 months through a pilot with LifeMD, is bringing coach, clinician and customer together or a patient in this [ together, too ], to access the latest in medically supported weight loss as well as the lifestyle management component. So it's very simple. We provide, through a coach, access to a LifeMD clinician. And together, they develop with the patient and the coach a program that will allow them to access the benefits of GLP-1 medication, along with the benefits of the lifestyle coaching and lifestyle programs that are offered through our OPTAVIA brand with the support of our coaches. Justin, what else would you add from your side?

Yes. I can just add that initially in Phase I of the collaboration, both OPTAVIA customers would be directed by their coach to a co-branded experience to access LifeMD services. And then kind of vice versa, LifeMD patients that are interested in coaching and lifestyle services would be directed to a page on OPTAVIA site, where they would be introduced to a coach and a lifestyle program. And then Phase II of the program is to create a much more integrated experience, where OPTAVIA or LifeMD could offer a bundled service that would include the entire package. And that's slated for mid-2024.

Okay. And Justin, if I can ask a follow-up to that, If we're thinking about a client of LifeMD that's already prescribed GLP-1 drug, when they're meeting with their health care provider, is OPTAVIA's program presented to them as something that's complementary? Like is it something that's presented to all existing GLP-1 users as something that's additive or complementary to their existing weight loss regimen?

So we haven't outlined the particulars of how that's going to work yet. But what I can tell you is we have a lot of patients now that ask their LifeMD provider for diet advice, for diet programs. I don't think that -- I don't know whether they're asking providers specifically for coaching. But when we run surveys, we see over 50% of our patients indicate that they would like or really like be very interested in this offering. . So we need to kind of like we need to figure out some of those details, but we do -- we're really excited about the quality of OPTAVIA coaches and the quality of the overall program. We don't -- we're realistic. It's not something that's going to be a fit for 100% of our patients. But we think that like there could be a meaningful percentage of our patients that are really interested in this kind of complete offering. And we do think that the more comprehensive the program is, the better retention that we're going to have. And we're actually really excited to work with Medifast and OPTAVIA, thinking like much longer term about how we can tweak both of our offerings to drive long-term retention, which is really creating long-term outcomes for patients.

Okay. Great. And then, Dan, if I could ask one more follow-up. You guys mentioned in the press release you have two new product bundles that are targeted to work alongside medically supported weight loss programs. Can you just maybe give us some details on those and again, the interface with consumers? How you position those products versus kind of the traditional OPTAVIA offerings?

Sure. So both product bundles are available starting this week. They were developed with the insight and some research that we did, working with patients who are currently using medical supported weight loss products, so GLP-1 drugs. And -- so the main thing that we focus on, which is tied back to some of the insights from both the research, the clinical research that was done when these drugs were developed as well as the insights of people using the products in their homes, is they're focused on creating the appropriate amount of nutritional support and muscle support. So those are the two kind of big things that are tied in there. So they're a combination of our meal replacement products that are fortified with vitamins and minerals. And they also include some of the active products that are tied to healthy muscle support and provide the additional protein that's important maintenance of lean muscle mass during the weight loss period. So coaches are increasingly coaching patients, who are using medical weight loss support. And these are -- those products were developed specifically for that group of people.

Our next question is from David Larsen with BTIG.

This is Jenny [ Chan ] on for David Larsen. Congrats on the partnership. I first just wanted to ask, what will the price point of the bundled offering be like? And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming that it will start off as cash pay?

Yes, that's right. Both products are cash pay, and they range from between $200 and $300, roughly.

Okay. Got it. And I just want to know if you had any more takeaways from the pilot program that you mentioned, did you see any superior results in terms of like the collaborative bundled offering versus the stand-alone?

Yes. What we've seen is a high degree of interest from people who are looking for support on their weight loss and health and wellness journey. And there's an expectation with the introduction of GLP-1 drugs that medically support weight loss be part of that offer. So our coaches are increasingly meeting the needs of those individuals. And those individuals are having excellent results through use and support of the medically supported products as well as using them in combination with the OPTAVIA program, which adds the lifestyle component that includes both nutrition, consultation, nutrition products, along with the advice about how to develop healthy habits to change your lifestyle. And that's inclusive also of adding an exercise regimen into it. So these are the things that are recommended by doctors for any patient, who is going to use the medically supported weight loss, that this be used in conjunction with the prescription that you get from your doctor.

Okay. Great. And just a last quick one for me. Does the contract have a specific time frame of how long it will be?

Jenny, this is Justin. The contract doesn't have an end date. Both parties are committed to a long-term partnership. We think that this is the first inning for GLP-1 medications, and we think that we've got a comprehensive offering together that's going to enable us to be a leader in the space, and we're looking forward to a very long-term partnership.

Our next question is from William Wood with B. Riley Securities.

Congratulations on the news. Just a quick clarification on that bundled product, $200 to $300 price range. Currently, the [ Weight Care ] program is $129. So I'm curious if that increase will be reflected, I guess, immediately or will that will the option into the [ Weight Care ] program from LifeMD be sort of as an add-on currently? Just a little color on that.

William, it's Justin Schreiber. So LifeMD's weight management offering is currently priced between $99 and $129 a month, depending on the length of the subscription. We don't anticipate that pricing to change in the first phase of the pilot. Medifast has a number of different bundles or -- that customers can choose. And so that 300 -- 200 to 300 monthly number is, I think, Medifast's goal and LifeMD's goal to have a product offering that would include the coach and all the lifestyle support and the provider down the road.

Got it. And then just, this is going to still be apart from the regular cross-selling activities that you see with your other [ VPC ] and lifestyle management care, correct?

Yes. So we've made -- the way we look at this is we've made a commitment not to work with competitors of Medifast in the kind of coaching and lifestyle space. So we're really committed to the partnership in that way. But LifeMD will continue to operate. It's direct-to-consumer virtual primary care platform and its other businesses in exactly the same way that we have been in the past. However, we think this is another differentiator for the offering, and we think that this makes it stronger. And it's another, as you said, potential cross-sell to patients that is good for patients.

Got it. Helpful. And then I think one last one from us, I'm just trying to understand about how we should view additional subscribers or patients for these programs. Is this -- are we going to expect the initial access or the allowable access to create a substantial bump in fourth quarter? Is this going to be more of a gradual increase over time as more people are allowed or sort of cross over into the LifeMD or into the Medifast platforms? Or do you think this will be much more of a jump sort of more in second half '24 when this becomes more of a bundled package? Obviously, there will be some limitation on patients with higher BMIs or on who actually looks to access it. But just trying to understand, what the additional subscriber base could be? And then sort of how to sort of think about this over time.

Sure. I mean, I'll give you my quick thoughts and then let Dan give you his thoughts. But LifeMD is going to be putting out full-year guidance in January, so we'll certainly be giving you as much color at that point in time as to what our expectations are for the weight management business next year. We're not going to -- I do think that it's -- this is not something where you're going to see a rush of patients come in the door next week. It's certainly a long-term partnership. And we -- in 2024, we're certainly expecting to see some results from this. But it's a long-term partnership. And LifeMD is obviously going to let Medifast comment on the success of -- on their side, and I'll let Dan give you some additional comments on that or Jim.

Yes. So I'll take this question. This is Jim Maloney. So as Justin just mentioned, we're not expecting really meaningful results for this Q4, so 2023. As we look at more the long term, we're excited about this new collaboration. And we believe that this will get to our target of getting to 15% growth in the long term and 15% operating income. And really, that's what we're concentrating on at this point.

Our next question is from Linda Bolton-Weiser with D.A. Davidson.

Yes. Thank you very much. So Justin, I'm not familiar with your business as I follow the Medifast side of it, but have you disclosed to people what percentage of your revenue is related to your weight management business? And can you give a sense as to how the growth rate of that has been versus the growth rate of your overall revenue?

Yes. This is Marc, CFO for LifeMD. Currently, the weight management business, we actually just launched in the second quarter of this year. As of the most recently reported quarter, it was about 10% of our total revenue. But essentially, it's gone from 0 to 16,000 active patients between late April and November 8 when we did our last earnings call. We expect to end the year in the kind of 22,000, 23,000 range, excluding this partnership and to see a multiple-fold increase next year. So it's rapidly heading into a very substantial piece of our business and is the most rapidly growing portion of our company.

And just to follow on that, can you give me a sense, do you just issue scripts to patients and then they go to the pharmacy? Or are you working with a compounder that can directly supply a product to your patients?

We do both. So we're all about -- LifeMD's number one priority is quality care and patient access. So every patient that comes in the door to LifeMD, we will run an electronic benefit verification, try to get -- do everything we can to get them approved for a branded medication. The providers typically, on the first consult, will communicate to the patient, whether they have insurance coverage and if they do, what their co-pay is for these medications. And then if patients aren't able to afford whatever the out-of-pocket cost ends up being for the medication or they don't have any coverage, which, as you know, coverage is still very difficult for these products; then we do have compounding pharmacy partners that we work with, that we can send a prescription for the patient to help them access the compounded version of the medication.

Great. That's very helpful. And then just for -- questions for Dan and Jim on the Medifast side. The kind of the dividend and the redeployment toward growth-type initiatives, I mean that's -- it's a sizable amount of money. I think it's whatever, $70 million or something. . What's the time frame for flowing that into the, I guess, income statement? Are you going to reinvest that amount of money over 1 year, 2 years? Can you give us a sense for the phasing of that? And I would assume it's all sort of income statement investment. Is that correct?

Yes. So we've been talking to investors for many years regarding our capital allocation approach. And talking about growth is our first priority for capital allocation. We're looking at investing in a few fronts. We're looking at an advertising campaign, which we believe will improve our one key metric that has been pressured over the -- over 2023. We're also looking into building our staffing for getting more expertise in widening the audience for our brand awareness. And then we're also looking towards standing up a more robust marketing technology stack. And then we're also looking at enhancing our digital experience. So there's a lot of investment that's going to be happening. Some of it will be capital. But I would say, Linda, most of it will be -- will hit the P&L. And we believe that will be the best approach to get the one key metric that we've been talking about to investors over the last 2 to 3 quarters, which is customer acquisition, getting that back on a path of growth and getting back to our target of, in the long term, getting to a consistent 15% growth in our business because we know that would be beneficial to our shareholders.

And then I guess, related to kind of a business model or the economics. On the Medifast side, would you -- like would your P&L benefit of this partnership be mainly just the food products and the muscle-enhancing products that you sell to the customers? Or are you going to share in that step-up of the fee that LifeMD is charging for a bundled service?

There is a -- so the majority of our revenue will continue to come from our sales of our services and our products. So as you know, all of those -- all the services we offer are bundled inside of the cost of the fuelings, so that will continue to be the case. There is going to be a LifeMD support bonus for our coaches who refer their clients to a primary-care physician on the LifeMD side. So there is an incentive for that for providing that access or I'll say, not necessarily incentive, but the support for the time they spend providing that access. So the two kind of integrate well. We believe, Linda, that as a result of this, we're going to be able to expand the appeal of our offer to include the changed environment. So those who are looking for medical support in their weight loss journey, so we know that's a significant number of our clients and those we've been able to access in the past and will then be within our addressable market. Again, we also believe that through this more comprehensive offer that includes support of clinicians, we'll be able to extend the number of services, but also the time of service, so the whole lifetime value that will be tied to both the products that they purchase.and in addition, the amount of time they spend with coaching and with coaches on the OPTAVIA programs.

Sounds good. And then my final question has to do with the insurance side, I think it's becoming kind of clear in the industry that perhaps a lot of insurers will go toward a step therapy approach, where they first recommend 6 months of behavior change and then they'll cover the prescription from the drug. . Are you guys -- I don't know how this works, but are you talking with insurers or advocating or anything? Because you're going to be positioned very well to offer both sides of that solution. And it seems to me that you should be really getting ahead of it and trying to get yourselves named as a preferred, recommended behavior change specialist. So like Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield named Noom and WeightWatchers as recommended behavior change programs. Are you working so that you can get yourself positioned to be named in that sort of way?

Yes, this is Justin. Look, we certainly think that's going to be an outcome of this partnership. There's been very few payers that have named anyone, that was one example that you just mentioned. But absolutely, from LifeMD's perspective, we think they're partnering with a recognized name in the coaching and diet and lifestyle space, will position us exactly in the same way or maybe even better positioned than some of those other companies that you just mentioned. So that's certainly on our agenda, and I'm sure Dan and I will spend a lot of time next year promoting what we're doing together and the benefits of it for patients. And certainly, we'll be talking to a lot of payers about it.

Our next question is from Alex Fuhrman with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Congratulations on this morning's announcement. Just kind of big picture, high level here, it crosses my mind that there are currently more active Medifast coaches than there are weight management patients for LifeMD. So if over time, if every coach signed up one new patient, that would obviously be a tremendous growth here. Keeping that in mind, I mean, is the expectation here that the LifeMD offering will be talked about throughout the entire Medifast coaching network? And can you talk a little bit, Justin, about what your capacity would be to handle in terms of clinicians in order to handle more patients next year?

Craig, this is Dan. I'll answer the first part of your question, and then Justin can answer the second part. The answer is, yes, we started in June with the pilot program, which had a select number of coaches who were offering the relationship or the partnership between clinician and coach. And the announcement today is to expand that to our entire coach network. Now what we know is that there's training involved, there is an element of comfort involved. And right now, we're seeing that familiarity and that understanding and that experience growing. So as we stated earlier, we anticipate this that will grow over time. But we do think that there's a lot of power in our coaches being able to service this group -- this very, very important group that are looking for medical support. I'll let -- Justin can comment on the capacity component.

Yes, Alex, I think you and I have talked about this, but we've made massive investments in building a scalable technology platform. We're now making a lot of improvements to the technology since we've scaled this offering from zero to tens of thousands of patients. We're making big investments in our [ Medical ] group. We have a lot of new providers, starting January 1. So the easy answer to your question is LifeMD will be able to handle and provide amazing care to as many patients as Medifast can send our direction or they come to LifeMD through the collaboration.

Okay. That's really helpful. And then obviously, being mindful of the fact that Christmas is only 12 days away here, but typically, post-Christmas, post-New Year's, there's a pretty big increase in interest in weight management solutions. Obviously, Phase II and the deeper partnership, we're not going to see by that. But you talked about kind of Phase 1 of the partnership in which each brand would have some type of an offering or mentioned on the website of the rest of the offering. Do you think we're going to see any of that in time for that kind of post-New Year's January diet season?

Yes. I can speak for the Medifast side and OPTAVIA. So effective immediately, meaning this week, those two product bundles that we talked about are going to be available for purchase. So that's an important first step. And then at the beginning of the new year, so to your point, in January in time for the new year, we will be rolling out access to this new partnership between coach, clinician and client to all of our coaches, so in time for the New Year's resolution season.

Our next question is from Sarah James with Cantor Fitzgerald.

I was hoping if you guys could walk us through the unit economics of the bundled product. So I was looking at the OPTAVIA compensation plan, and it's not immediately clear to me what the cost basis is, [ approaching ] sessions, and I'd be interested, how many are assumed per month in the bundled product? And are you assuming any sort of cost synergies there? Because it sounded like you might have a longer engagement period as well as possibly some tax benefits on cross-selling.

Sure. This is Dan. So I'll give you some -- a little bit more specifics on this. The two kits are monthly kits. So this is consistent with what we would typically do. So our coaches coach to a program, which tie back to what you do on a monthly basis. The product kits, so the two of them, one of them is the muscle health kit. So the more specific price, it starts at $158 on the first -- the entry price and then goes to $180 for ongoing price in that. And then the nutrition kit is $268 and then $321. That fits into a structure of what coaches are currently doing. It's a slight step-down in terms of the amount of product that is provided, and that's really reflective of the difference in consumption habits that we found as we were testing our current product bundles with people who are using GLP-1 drugs. So the unit economics do change a little bit. And as I mentioned earlier, we believe that two things overcome that. One is the ability to expand the offer to include those who are looking for this kind of support, as well as extending the time that we believe that the patients will be with us. But having said that, we're going to be learning more and more about this as we go through the year.

And Justin, from the LifeMD side, if you guys are charging $200 or $300 a month, any insight on what you're assuming in that for unit economics?

For all the models that we've run, Sarah, I mean, our unit economics are kind of -- our margin looks roughly the same with -- that it does on our current offerings with any of the bundled offerings.

I will add just one more comment that kind of may help with your question, which is tied to research that we had commissioned, which tells us that those who are patients who engage in medically supported weight loss, are already buying or putting together bundles of products to support them in that journey that go beyond the subscription services or the cost of seeing the physician and of the prescriptions. And those product bundles are kind of in the $250 range. So our product pricing was put together with that in mind as well.

Got it. And then, Justin, I was wondering if this changes the trajectory for hiring clinical care workers. You guys had talked about having a pretty large pipeline of applications, just having this new collaboration change the need or maybe your confidence in hiring for 2024.

No. I mean, are we -- I think we're hiring. We've been expecting this partnership for some time, so we're prepared for it, and we are really ramping up our clinical hours starting January 1. But I'm super confident that we can staff appropriately to meet demand for our services next year.

Our next question is from Yi Chen with H.C. Wainwright.

I'm just curious, are there any certified nutritionists or physicians being the OPTAVIA coaches?

Yes. We do have a -- I'll answer the nutrition support question first. We do have a staff of nutritionists who support our coaches and their customers. We do not have physicians on staff. Although we -- consistently, our coaches are trained to refer patients back to their primary care physician for questions that are medically related. In this new model, the opportunity is to have that physician support tie back to LifeMD.

Got it. And currently, are there any overlaps between the subscribers for OPTAVIA service and the subscribers for LifeMD's weight management program?

It's minimal. I mean, again, we ran a successful pilot program together, but the numbers are fairly small right now.

And lastly, would you be able to share with us any statistics regarding the effectiveness of these [ programs ] in terms of the percentage of weight loss during the designated period for both OPTAVIA and LifeMD's weight management program?

Sure. I think we have done clinical research on the OPTAVIA 5 & 1 program and the OPTAVIA 4 & 2 & 1 program, which are two versions of the programs that our coaches coach to. The study -- I mean, there's -- what I would -- the best thing would be to refer you to our website, so you can see the specifics of that because I mean, the study was done in effect to show the impact of not just the program, but the program with coaching. So I'll give you a couple of statistics, and then you can refer to the website for the actual clinical data. But we showed that those clients who are engaged with the coach lose 17x more fat than the selective -- the self-directed control group. So that's an important statistic. Also that in the clinical study, those who used the 5 & 1 program and used coaching were 10 -- lost 10x more weight than the self-directed group. And those who leveraged the coaching in terms of speaking with their coach during the prescribed times, were 2x as successful as those who were -- that took less advantage of that. So that all ties back then to some statistics that will help you look at the actual weight loss.

And our final question is from Doug Lane with Water Tower Research.

Yes, thank you for the call and all the information. I guess the last sort of loose end, in my mind, is just how the companies are going to collaborate using essentially two different business models with the independent contractors at OPTAVIA and W2 clinicians at LifeMD. So just simply, how does the coach benefit from referring one of their clients to LifeMD? And then, how does the clinician benefit financially from referring one of their patients to OPTAVIA?

Great question, Doug. So the first question on -- there's a LifeMD support bonus that's paid to a coach that refers or that provides access to one of their clients through LifeMD. So there's some specific things that can and can't be done. This is a highly regulated area. So we're within our -- the regulations that are out there. And I'll let Justin answer the question on the LifeMD side.

Yes. The important thing, Doug, is, like Dan said, there's -- essentially, LifeMD pays a coaching service fee to OPTAVIA for the coaching component of the offering. And then again, from -- right now from the LifeMD side, there is no financial arrangement. Right now, we're bundling Medifast offering into what we're doing, and we're going to see how our patients respond, and we expect that to be very positive. But again, right now, the only financial arrangement, other than what was announced in the agreement today, is the coaching service fee that the LifeMD pays to OPTAVIA coaches that are supporting our patients.

Okay. I mean, that makes sense. And then just maybe it's too early to even ask this, but is there an opportunity for a clinician to becoming OPTAVIA coach if they start to get a lot of cross-pollinization here?

Probably not. And it's not because they're negative on the coaching, it's because they're obviously very busy as a clinician. And it's the financial year that probably gets very difficult. There are a lot of strict regulations in what we're doing together. And we've structured these agreements very carefully to make sure that we're doing everything appropriately and compliantly. And so I think that's unlikely.

And I'll also add to that, Doug, that as you know, over 90% of our coaches were clients first, so have gone through the OPTAVIA program. So two very different types of individuals. We've been very successful in converting clients to coaches. But that's -- our focus will remain there, that's -- it's an important part of our model, and we'll continue to be that.

We have reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for closing comments.

Well, thank you. On behalf of both Medifast and LifeMD teams, we want to thank all of you for joining us on the call today. We obviously have some -- this is exciting news for us, and we look forward to providing you future updates on the opportunity ahead as we collaborate to deliver the best possible outcomes for those seeking better health and wellness.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and thank you for your participation.