If you have ever wondered what would be a reasonable price for a medical service, you are not alone. Millions of Americans, especially those who are uninsured, walk into doctors offices every year with no idea of how much their care will cost. That’s a scary feeling, especially if you have to pay for all of it on your own, or if you are unsure how much of the costs your insurance company will cover.
How many people go to get their car repaired without knowing how much it will cost? Or without checking around for high quality, reasonably priced auto shops? I feel it’s safe to assume not very many. Why should our health care be any different? I would argue its more important than your auto repair.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Benjamin Brewer, Even Doctors Guess At Health Charges, asks …
Well… kinda. Yesterday was a Nashville Health Care Council luncheon titled “Financing the Deal.” (Ex-) Senator Dr. Bill Frist was the moderator for the panel of financial industry health care analysts. Some were from the venture capital arena, some were from banking and others from equity firms.
There was decent discussion regarding the money available in health care today for small companies looking to do something innovative that increase productivity and efficiency. I wanted to share with you the main points I drew from the discussion, in case anyone else out there is working their butts off in a start-up/entrepreneurial company in health care.
The following list comes in no particular order (other than what’s freshest in my memory):
- Investors are looking for the “right” business model and the “right” management teams. If you are looking for capital… only seek the amount that you need based on your management team and business …
Check out this great story published in the Williamson A.M (Tennessean) about Christoper.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008804290319
You can also download a PDF of the article.
Well ok… I kind of exaggerated a bit, but I cannot help but wonder to what extent this article may be inferring that sharing your health data can truly help you increase the quality of your health and health care. It makes sense right. The more you are willing to compare your data and experiences to that of others, the more likely you are to receive information that is pertinent to you and relevant to your health needs.
I came across a brief article in today’s iHealthBeat titled National Quality Forum Says Data Sharing Can Enhance Health Quality.
The article basically states that the NQF is calling for an IT application that combines quality data, clinical guidelines and decision support tools… which would consequently improve health quality if the data could be shared.
I wish I could tell you more… however the bulk of the information is contained in an article published …
So it turns out that I have been living under a rock the past week and did not hear about the Walmart vs. Shank story until yesterday when Walmart reversed its position. For those of you who have been living under a rock as well, here is a recap:
Ms. Shank signed up for Walmart’s health plan which contains a clause that states that Walmart may recoup money from an employee for medical expenses if said employee collects damages from an injury suit.
Ms. Shank was enrolled in Walmart’s health plan for about 3 months when she was in a car accident that put her in a wheelchair and caused brain damage which took most of her short term memory.
Walmart paid about $470,000 for her health care.
The Shank family sued the trucking company responsible for her accident and received a $1 million settlement.
Walmart then sued the Shank family to recover …
I must applaud Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee for delaying the release of their doctor info. In doing research for the dCard standard, I personally witnessed the large discrepancies between different sources for physician information - BCBS of TN being one of them. I also applaud the doctors for paying attention to their profiles and bringing errors to light.
The article in the Tennessean today has a great quote. “The insurer’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Moroney, said the delay was aimed at fixing the mistakes. “Because of the sensitivities around this (issue), we’re very intentionally making this a very open process where we’re very actively seeking input and involvement of physicians and consumers,” Moroney said.”
I would like to make my point that I believe what is most important on the consumer directed health front is providing accurate information to all health care consumers. …
NASHVILLE, Tenn., (February 26, 2008) – A consortium of nine US-based healthcare technology companies and healthcare providers has announced it will lead adoption of a new consistent file format standard for collecting, storing and exchanging of healthcare provider data.
To be called a dCard — short for doctor card — the new technology criterion is intended to establish basic data collection standards where they currently do not exist. Along with improved ease of collaboration, the partnership will help ensure consistency and accuracy among users of this information.
“In today’s healthcare marketplace, basic identifier information about a physician or hospital is scattered in different formats and in different places across the internet,” said Christopher Parks, co-founder/CEO of change:healthcare, one of the companies working on the standard. “And there’s no certainty of the information being timely, accurate or consistent. As more consumer healthcare information is pushed out to end-users, how can …
Check out Christopher’s article from yesterdays Tennessean…. so so proud!
Online article. PDF Version.
I had the opportunity this week to attend the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Gallatin support group to tell them about change:healthcare (of course I couldn’t get the projector to work, which made sharing the application a bit difficult, however it all worked out). As I began to tell them what our company is about, what our application could do for them, and the ways in which we have been working with the NMSS Mid-South Chapter to get the application out to some clients for free, I sensed they were kind of surprised. They don’t really have anything other than a spread sheet to help them get their healthcare cost under control, they do not know where the least expensive pharmacy is (even though they often have hundreds of dollars in prescriptions every month), and some have even called around looking for the least expensive place to get a …
Per Christopher’s request, I began looking into Facebook groups that would possibly be interested in taking a look at our new change:healthcare site debuting sometime in late February. He and I figured that some young active minds, looking to support “Universal Healthcare” or at the very least change in the system, could have the potential to provide some great feedback.
So far, sadly, my generation has proven both of us wrong. I wanted to feature a response from a gentleman (graduating ‘08 - I just graduated in May ‘07) that seems to put my optimism in check. I had originally created a post in the group “Universal Healthcare” titled “Providing and Encouraging Access - Health 2.0″.
This is what I presented to the group:
“Hi everyone. I work for a company called change:healthcare inc. We produce tools to help healthcare consumers become educated on the confusing healthcare system of …
