HeartRisk™ Empowers Employers Who Adopt Cardio Diagnostics’ Solutions to Proactively Combat Cardiovascular Disease in Their Workforce and Mitigate Business Risks

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CARDIO DIAGNOSTICS HOLDINGS, INC. UNVEILS GROUNDBREAKING EMPLOYER CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE RISK INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM, HEARTRISK™

HeartRisk™ Empowers Employers Who Adopt Cardio Diagnostics’ Solutions to Proactively Combat Cardiovascular Disease in Their Workforce and Mitigate Business Risks

Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDIO), an AI-driven precision cardiovascular medicine company, today announced that the Company’s new HeartRisk proprietary data intelligence platform will be available to employers who offer the Company’s innovative cardiovascular disease clinical tests as a health benefit to their employees. HeartRisk, a leading platform that combines insights from HIPAA-compliant anonymized and aggregated clinical cardiovascular risk data with industry and geographic data, aims to help employers understand the cardiovascular risks in their workforce compared to population and industry benchmarks.

HeartRisk, which will be available beginning February 15, 2024, involves a tiered SaaS pricing model starting at $2,500 a month. The tiered model will accommodate the diverse needs of different size employers, benefits brokers, and third-party associations who adopt the technology. This approach ensures that companies only pay for the features and services that are most relevant to their organization, thereby offering a cost-effective solution to combat cardiovascular disease in their workforce.

Via, HeartRisk, employers, benefits brokers, as well as potentially third-party administrators and health plan care managers in the future can access actionable insights related to risks associated with cardiovascular disease, such as the amount of stop-loss insurance to carry based on the degree of CVD risk in the relevant population or selections of appropriate chronic care management partners. Ultimately, stakeholders will leverage the insights from HeartRisk to make more data-driven decisions on the right suite of benefits, the proper allocation of resources, enhance employee retention rates, and take proactive measures to mitigate the profound impact of cardiovascular disease on productivity and healthcare expenditures.

Employer Healthcare Costs Are Soaring

Chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, significantly impact healthcare costs for employers. According to United Healthcare, heart disease and stroke alone cost employers $363 billion annually. In addition to the direct healthcare costs, chronic conditions also lead to increased workforce absenteeism and decreased productivity. According to the CDC, five chronic diseases or risk factors for cardiovascular disease—high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, physical inactivity, and obesity—cost US employers $36.4 billion a year due to employee absenteeism. Innovative employers and their broker partners interested in managing the implications of these growing costs related to cardiovascular disease are already looking for ways to adapt to this new reality.

Cardio Diagnostics' Epi+Gen CHD and PrecisionCHD tests address coronary heart disease, which is the most common type of heart disease, in a way that realizes value for employers on a shorter time horizon and with the goal of realizing such value prior to the manifestation of the acute impact of coronary heart disease on workforce productivity and employer healthcare costs. Epi+Gen CHD and PrecisionCHD evaluate objective epigenetic and genetic biomarkers from a patient's blood sample and utilize a proprietary AI algorithm to assess the risk for a heart attack and aid in the diagnosis of coronary heart disease, respectively. These highly sensitive tests, which only require a simple blood draw, can be deployed remotely for offsite employees, in a provider setting or onsite via a mobile clinic; this creates the flexibility to reach more eligible employees and drives a higher benefits utilization rate. The Company’s most recent heart disease fair for an employer organization gained participation from 75% of eligible employees and their spouses.

Enhanced Risk Mitigation for Innovative Employers

Employers manage workforce health risks through a combination of preventive care, physical and mental health initiatives, and comprehensive insurance coverage. These strategies not only contribute to the well-being of employees but also help mitigate the financial risks associated with workplace injuries, chronic health conditions, and absenteeism.

Employers that fail to mitigate such risks experience significant costs, both direct and indirect. Direct costs can include increased insurance premiums and workers' compensation claims. Indirect costs often include lost productivity due to employee absenteeism, decreased morale, and the costs associated with hiring and training replacement workers. These challenges are only expected to increase for employers. The 2022 Best Practices in Healthcare Survey found that seven in ten employers anticipate moderate to significant increases in healthcare costs over the next three years.

"As we serve providers, health plans, and employer organizations, we know that the human toll and financial costs of cardiovascular disease are integrated. According to the US Census Bureau, a majority of Americans obtain their health benefits through their employers, so innovative employers are key to winning the fight against heart disease. We built HeartRisk, a platform that combines insights from our clinical tests with other meaningful data to empower forward-thinking employers who invest in their workforce's health," said Meesha Dogan, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Cardio Diagnostics. "This isn't just about predicting business risks that arise from workforce health outcomes; it's about preventing them with actionable insights that help inform risk-reduction strategies to help employers reduce healthcare costs, bolster employee retention, and ultimately, build a healthier, more resilient future for their employees and company."

Employers can get ahead of rising healthcare costs with enhanced visibility into the health of their workforce and make data-driven decisions to invest in advanced medical technologies and wellness solutions that target their biggest cost centers, such as heart disease.

About Cardio Diagnostics

Cardio Diagnostics is an artificial intelligence-powered precision cardiovascular medicine company that makes cardiovascular disease prevention, detection, and management more accessible, personalized, and precise. The Company was formed to further develop and commercialize clinical tests by leveraging a proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven Integrated Genetic-Epigenetic Engine (“Core Technology”) for cardiovascular disease to become one of the leading medical technology companies for improving prevention, detection, and treatment of cardiovascular disease. For more information, please visit www.cardiodiagnosticsinc.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements and information included in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words or phrases “will”, "will likely result," "expected to," "will continue," "anticipated," "estimate," "projected," "intend," “goal,” or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks, known and unknown, and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Such uncertainties and risks include but are not limited to, our ability to successfully execute our growth strategy, changes in laws or regulations, economic conditions, dependence on management, dilution to stockholders, lack of capital, the effects of rapid growth upon the Company and the ability of management to effectively respond to the growth and demand for products and services of the Company, newly developing technologies, the Company’s ability to compete, regulatory matters, protection of technology, the effects of competition and the ability of the Company to obtain future financing. An extensive list of factors that can affect future results are discussed in the Current Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2022 and Forms 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 2023 and September 30, 2023 under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item IA thereof, and other documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such factors could materially adversely affect the Company's financial performance and could cause the Company's actual results for future periods to differ materially from any opinions or statements expressed within this press release.

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