PAVmed (NASDAQ: PAVM) unit Lucid wins Medicare payment for EsoGuard, but loss widens

What happened

PAVmed Inc. (NASDAQ: PAVM) said Medicare now fully reimburses EsoGuard, the esophageal precancer test sold by its Lucid Diagnostics subsidiary.

Lucid began receiving Medicare payments in October. That matters to PAVmed holders because the parent's losses still far exceed its revenue. PAVmed announced the news with preliminary third-quarter results on Nov. 13.

Lucid sends claims for tests run at its Texas lab to Novitas, the Medicare contractor for that lab. It is paid at EsoGuard's established Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule rate.

In the third quarter Lucid performed 2,871 EsoGuard tests. October alone was a record month, with more than 1,800 tests.

Key numbers

Metric	Latest	Change	Source
EsoGuard tests performed, 3Q26	2,871		SEC 8-K, Exhibit 99.1
Revenue per reconciliation table, 3Q26	$41 thousand	from $5 thousand, +720.0%	Calculated from SEC 8-K
Operating expenses, 3Q26	$6.77 million	from $4.85 million, +39.6%	Calculated from SEC 8-K
Non-GAAP adjusted loss, 3Q26	$1.24 million	from $0.45 million, +178.0%	Calculated from SEC 8-K
Cash and equivalents, Sept. 30, 2026 vs Dec. 31, 2025	$8.9 million	from $1.5 million, +$7.4 million	Calculated from SEC 8-K
Unrestricted cash, Sept. 30, 2026 vs Dec. 31, 2025	$3.6 million	from $1.2 million, +$2.4 million	Calculated from SEC 8-K

Read more: PAVmed (PAVM) company research

The Medicare opening

Lucid is now focusing its sales effort on at-risk Medicare beneficiaries. The company says they make up about 50% of the 30 million patients that professional society guidelines recommend for esophageal precancer testing.

Chairman and Chief Executive Lishan Aklog called the reimbursement "a critical and transformational milestone." He said PAVmed, as Lucid's largest common shareholder, "stands to benefit directly" from Lucid's near-term revenue opportunity.

The company also announced an 11,991-patient real-world EsoGuard study in the journal Diagnostics. It calls the study the largest peer-reviewed study of nonendoscopic esophageal precancer testing to date.

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Progress at Veris, PortIO and Octeris

At Veris Health, monthly patient enrollment at OSU-The James nearly doubled from July to September. Veris reached design freeze on its implantable physiological monitor and started a 90-day GLP animal study in October.

PAVmed held an initial FDA meeting on PortIO in late October. Octeris finished its next-generation multimodal endoscopic imaging probe, which the company says is ready for clinical testing.

What the quarter's numbers show

Spending is growing faster than the reported revenue base. Operating expenses were $6.8 million, up 39.6% from $4.85 million a year earlier. They included $1.0 million of stock-based compensation.

The business update puts Lucid's third-quarter revenue at $1.2 million. The release's reconciliation table, which carries the year-earlier comparison, lists revenue of $41 thousand against $5 thousand a year earlier.

The non-GAAP adjusted loss was $1.24 million, against $446 thousand a year earlier. The per-share loss narrowed to $0.19 from $0.62. The non-GAAP share count in the same table rose to 6.64 million from 718 thousand.

Net loss as reported was $11.66 million, against $5.38 million a year earlier. The table adds back a $9.99 million change in fair value of equity method investments, against $4.38 million a year earlier, as a non-cash item.

Why it matters

Cash and cash equivalents were $8.9 million at Sept. 30, up $7.4 million from $1.5 million at Dec. 31, 2025. Restricted cash made up $5.3 million of the latest balance, against $0.3 million at year-end.

By OptimistFi's calculation, unrestricted cash was $3.6 million. That is less than one quarter's operating expenses.

OptimistFi has argued that PAVmed's equity works only if its controlled device assets regain a financeable path to adoption before liquidity and dilution overwhelm shareholders. Medicare payment for EsoGuard is direct evidence on adoption. The cash and share-count figures leave the financing side unresolved.

The results are preliminary, and the reconciliation table's revenue is far below the Lucid revenue in the business update. PortIO, Octeris and the Veris submission each still need FDA steps.

What's next

Octeris expects to submit its initial FDA pre-submission package in November. PortIO has an in-person FDA pre-submission meeting in January 2027 on its regulatory pathway. Enrollment in Octeris' University of North Carolina clinical validation study is expected to begin that month.

Veris is on track for an FDA 510(k) submission in early 2027. A submission on that schedule would support the case. A slip would leave the device assets without a dated path.

PAVmed's next quarterly results will show whether October's record EsoGuard volume holds and whether Medicare payments reach the revenue line.

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