My name is Robert Hendrick, one of the co-founders of change:healthcare. I have a relatively healthy family of five, a wife and three girls, seven year old twins and a three year old. I say relatively healthy because there are little things that always pop up. Like two ER visits already this year with the littlest one.
We have a major commercial health insurance plan through my wife’s employer. To be honest, our insurance is quite good. Something can always be improved, but I have little room to complain about them.
We live in one of the best areas of the country for healthcare. There are leading medical facilities including research hospitals that are first class. It doesn’t hurt that Nashville is also the home to more than its fair share of healthcare companies.
Up until a few months ago, I was one of those happy-go-lucky people who never worried about their healthcare insurance, how much it cost, whether I had coverage or if I could get in to see a doc. My wife grew up in the insurance industry – her father inherited her grandfather’s independent agency in a small West Tennessee town. She was a financial manager for the largest hospital corporation in the world (who shall remain nameless) and is an actuarial consultant who, among other things, specializes in healthcare. Guess who handled all of our healthcare insurance issues.
I got involved in MedBillManager and went on to form change:healthcare with Christopher Parks, my fellow co-founder. He tells his story better than I can, so you can read it there. When I got involved and began to understand the healthcare system and how it worked, I was amazed. I’m someone who loves to learn and the healthcare industry was deep and wide in knowledge. Now I’m up to my neck in it, and I feel compelled to share what I’ve learned and the things I continue to learn. Fair warning – you may not like everything that I’ve found out.
I’m going to be open and honest. I’m also going to reserve the right to hold back on any information that might be deemed too personal as it relates to mine and my family’s healthcare. But I’m going to put it out there. You are going to be able to see how the average American deals with the healthcare system. I won’t pull punches. I won’t cow-tow to sponsors, and if you have questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.
Welcome to change:healthcare. Less talk. More action.
