USA Equities Corp. Launches Q-Scale Product to Meet Growing Mental Health End Market Demand

• Strengthening Business Model and Expanding Product Portfolio in Large Addressable End Market
• Q-Scale Represents a Compelling and Reimbursable Value Proposition for USAQ’s Physician Clients
• Further Leveraging Highly Scalable QHSLab System, Q-Scale is a Unique Cloud-based and Interactive Patient Emotional Health Assessment Solution
• Planning Additional New Product Launches Focused on Major Chronic Illnesses Affecting Up to 80% of Patients at the Primary Care Level

West Palm Beach, FL, Oct. 19, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- USA Equities Corp. (OTCQB: USAQ), a company focused on providing clinicians with tools to profit from value-based healthcare solutions through the use of emerging digital technologies, today announced the launch of its proprietary Q-Scale, or Quality of Life, digital medicine assessment tool for screening patients potentially suffering from mental and emotional health-related issues.

The Q-Scale is a digital health 10-item questionnaire designed to measure psycho-emotional factors in patients who might be at risk of mental health issues. Five categorical ratings are available for response to each item, ranging from ‘None of the time’ to ‘All of the time.’ If responses to the Q-Scale indicate potential mental health troubles, patients are directed to the Kessler 6 questions within the assessment to identify their risk of anxiety and depression for further clinical evaluation. If the responses to the questions categorize the patient as “at risk” for mental health issues including depression, the treating physician will be informed through a simple-to-read report for the need of more focused evaluation during their encounter with the patient.

Troy Grogan, Chief Executive Officer of USA Equities Corp. commented, “We’re very excited to launch our newest digital medicine assessment tool, Q-Scale, a quality-of-life assessment solution, targeting our expanding network of primary care providers with a highly collaborative patient and physician approach. The Q-Scale is well aligned with our mission to enhance the quality of life for individuals and populations through physician-directed digital medicine and innovative, preventive health-care technologies. The tool will be of tremendous assistance to our physician clients who are often time constrained, understaffed due to COVID-19 and in need of efficient means of screening patients who might be at risk of debilitating mental health problems. In addition, the Q-Scale provides patients, particularly those who are reliant on their primary care physician, a highly accessible self-management tool that offers an affordable solution to begin to address the growing number of issues associated with mental illness.

Troy Grogan concluded by saying, “Q-Scale also represents another significant opportunity to further strengthen USA Equities Corp’s business model by targeting a large and growing end market, patient psychosocial and emotional well-being, and leveraging QHSLab, our highly scalable cloud-based software and technology platform. According to CDC and recent publications during the pandemic, the prevalence rate of patients who present conditions to primary care physicians that are targeted by the Q-Scale is between 20% to 40%.”

For physicians, the product is time-saving, maximizing face-to-face office visits while generating additional revenue through reimbursement codes accepted by commercial payors, Medicare and Medicaid. From a patient perspective, Q-Scale promotes early detection and treatment of conditions potentially related to stress, anxiety, or depression, and increases the value provided to patients during their care.

Industry trends also reinforce the growing need for new and time-sensitive approaches for the treatment of mental health-related issues. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five Americans will experience a mental illness in a given year. Also, one in 25 Americans will be impacted by a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. In addition, a recent study published by KFF, a non-profit organization focused on health-care issues, indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic recession have negatively affected many people's mental health with up to 40% of people reporting anxiety and depressive-related symptoms.

Key aspects of the Q-Scale product include:

• Utilizes QHSLab’s cloud-based software and technology system that scales to allow a virtually unlimited number of user sessions to be activated and integrates into existing physician and healthcare interventions while collecting and compiling relevant, empirical data.
• Measures a patient's responses, identifying early "warning" signs using questions regarding their sleep, stress, anxiety, worry, pain and overall life satisfaction. Patients determined to have high mental health risks are identified for further screening during the same assessment. Items in the Q-Scale have been deliberately written to emphasize normal psychological functioning in generally healthy patients, therefore it is a total population screening tool.
• If responses to the Q-Scale indicate potential mental health issues, patients are directed to the Kessler 6, a global measure of distress drawing from depressive and anxiety related symptomology. The treating physician is then alerted to the need for more focused evaluation during their encounter with the patient.
• Patients receive a post-assessment digital ‘feedback’ report and self-management strategies useful in addressing any items identified during the assessment.

About USA Equities Corp.

USA Equities Corp. (OTCQB: USAQ) is a medical device company providing digital medicine solutions and point-of-care-diagnostic tests to primary care physicians. Digital medicine allows doctors to quickly and effectively assess their patients’ response to healthcare screening using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms. Digital medicine can also remotely monitor patients’ vital signs and evaluate the effects of newly prescribed medicines and treatments on their patients’ health through real-time data that is transferred from patient to doctor. USAQ also markets and sells point-of-care, rapid-response diagnostic tests, which are used in the primary care practice. USAQ’s products and services are designed to help physicians improve patient monitoring and medical care while also improving the service revenues of their practice.

For additional information, visit the Company’s website at www.USAQCorp.com

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