In a phone call from the NPR affiliate in Nashville, Host & News Reporter Nina Cardona talked with change:healthcare Product Manager Chris McIntyre about a newly released service that lets people find the cost of a prescription by asking Twitter. The result… a segment on the Morning Edition radio show this morning!

The Morning Edition with Jacqueline Fellows runs each morning during the week. We are honored to be a featured part of the show. We have included a snippet below, just click play and see what NPR had to say about our new service! You can find more information, or listen to the entire show here. There is also a written transcript of the interview from Nashville Public Radio.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

If you have ever left the doctors office confused about a diagnosis or wondering how much your new prescription is going to cost you, you should definitely check out the new ASKch Twitter healthcare service.

About the ASKch Twitter Service

AskCH is a one-of-a-kind healthcare tool. Send a healthcare cost or definition question in the proper format, and receive the answer with a link to find detailed information! This service was designed to help you save money on your health related expenses and to learn about health issues. It will give you instant cost information for prescriptions as well as definitions for common health issues from change:healthcare. We exist to help people save money on prescriptions, doctor visits and medical procedures and try to teach people along the way.

Find out more about the ASKch Service at: http://ask.changehealthcare.com

About Nina Cardona, All Things Considered Host & News Reporter

A Middle Tennesseean since the age of two, Nina Cardona grew up in a home whose radio dials seemed to be permanently welded into the “90.3″ position. She credits WPLN’s music programming with triggering an interest in the arts that lead her to earn a Bachelor of Music degree from Converse College. After seven years as one of the station’ s music hosts, Nina became a reporter and local host of All Things Considered in 2004.

It’s all talk and NO action.

Now compare that with the recently-launched Twitter app from change:healthcare. It allows tweeple to receive information on health conditions and medication costs as well as prescription medication costs, generic alternatives and more using secure private messages via Twitter.

Government talks. Industry acts.

If you want to find the cost of prescription medication and medical term definitions via Twitter – Just Ask! Follow @askch on twitter and send a question in the proper format to see how you can change healthcare too.

Our new interface is intended to make our application simpler and easy to use and understand!!  Yep, that’s right… We want to assist you in finding the information you need, identifying ways to save money, and managing your healthcare claims, bills, and EOBs all in one place.

Our new navigation is today’s highlight! Take a look at the screen shots below.

This first view relates to accounts that have automatic claims feeds associated with them.  When your employer and/or TPA works with change:healthcare, we are able to show you individualized and relevant ways you can save on your healthcare (based upon where you spend your healthcare dollar). It’s kinda like having someone watching out for you 24/7, notifying you about ways you can save money.

As the red circles highlight, you can now simply navigate between the “Find”, “Ways to Save”, and “Manage” tabs.  The center of your dashboard even features four icons that help you identify where to start upon logging into your account.

The next screen shot gives you a view of the new consumer accounts.  When you log into your change:healthcare account for the first time since our update, or sign up for a brand new change:healthcare account, you will notice two icons in the center of the dashboard. They provide quick access to search for information on our site and provide an overview of your healthcare expenses.

We look forward to sharing more information about our new interface with you, and showing you how change:healthcare can help you save money and make smarter consumer decisions that suit your individual healthcare needs.

Please let us know if you have any questions, feedback, comments, etc. We love to hear from users!

However, in the meantime, I thought I would show you guys some pics of the old office and some of the team

ferf and matt making magic

Katrina (Queen of Content) and c:h sign made by kids

Intern Sara working hard!

Mr Robert causing trouble

Dian is rock-n da House!

Coffee plus the stuff in here powers c:h

And lastly, some of the team went for sushi near our new office (at Peter’s Sushi in Brentwood) … we got Ted a birthday t-shirt that had “n3rd” emblazoned on it!

suuuuuuuuuuuuushi

Distinguishing Characteristics:
Applicants should possess an interest in healthcare and its impact of society, Web 2.0, social networks, as well as the industry transition to increase quality measures, consumerism, health data exchange, and cost transparency tools. Strong social and communication skills, self-starter, entrepreneurially minded.

Email your resume and cover letter to info@changehealthcare.com.

Check out the entire story by downloading the PDF!

My wife took my kids to a Clinic for their flu shots (No, I didn’t go and get mine, and that makes me far less of a person than those of you who did). Flu shots fall under “well care” on our plan, so there is no charge.

But then I got a bill from the clinic, an in-store deal – very convenient (I know, I should have gone too, stop already). The bill must be a glitch I told myself. I decided to wait and see if they figured it out rather than spend time on the phone with them and with my insurer. Then I got a statement for the bill again. Odd, I thought.

And then, I got a nice letter from Insurer asking me to confirm if I had another insurance plan. I procrastinated, was moving residences, etc. and did not answer that letter. I did not make the connection.

Doing something else entirely, I logged in to the online view of my insurance account (which I must say is a weak “silo” view of the information my insurer has). They only had two claims for the past year. That was wrong, I knew. Hmmm. Must’ve logged into the account for our previous policy (still active 2 years after moving off of that plan – can you say “we never update”). Yup. Logged out and logged in with the other username/password combo and suddenly, there are my claims for the year on my current plan.

Only then does it dawn on me. The clinic submitted the claim on the old insurance and did not confirm new insurance, or if they did, they simply accepted that my insurance info was current with them. My previous plan and this plan were with the same Insurer, so it’s an honest mistake.

So now my Insurer has denied the claim on my old insurance plan. The clinic wants their money because the Insurer denied it. Now I’ve got to go and straighten out both of them because my insurer who had BOTH policies is not able to do a simple lookup on my SSN and determine yes, I do have another policy AND LO AND BEHOLD IT’S WITH THEM!! Who’d a thunk since they only have 65% of the entire health insurance business in the state.

It’s only $60 bucks – 2 flu shots at $30 each, but it’s my $60. It’s money they planned on spending in the plan, so it’s paid in. Most folks would have simply assumed that the shots weren’t actually covered and paid the $60.

Thankfully, I called the Clinic’s 1-866 number, and Mona was very helpful and walked through things with me and resubmitted the claims.

Don’t put too much faith in your Insurer.

What do you do in a situation like this?

Well the answer to that question is personal.  However, in reading the letter, I wondered how many people know where to turn for help when they become newly disabled.  How do we make these services more prominent?

My first thought was “why hasn’t his healthcare provider helped him?” and by helped I mean referred him to resources that may be available through his medical center.  Most larger health institutions have assistance programs to help individuals pay for healthcare costs.  Though you must qualify for this type of program, it seems in his situation he would.

Second, what not-for-profit serving heart conditions could direct him to assistance programs in his area?  I know some organizations offer premium and co-payment assistance programs to help constituents pay for care. This would be especially helpful if he is on COBRA.

Third, why are there not resources listed on the web or provided in print when individuals enroll in SSDI and medical. The program has a waiting period – five months.  Doesn’t it seem logical that some (if not a lot of) individuals enrolling in these programs would have a hard time making ends meet during this time, with no pay and potentially no health insurance coverage.  I am confused as to why resources are not suggested to these indivdiuals when they enroll in the programs. (Now I know that SSDI back pays for the waiting period, but that does not mean that individuals do not struggle during those months).

What kinds of programs are out there, and how do you best help someone experiencing a new medical disability during such tough economic times?

In an effort to make the system easier to use and more effective, we are continually making changes. Yep, there will be a whole new User-Interface coming, but in the meantime because of User feedback we’ve implemented the following:

COMMUNICATIONS

A huge benefit of using the site is being able to connect with people experiencing like health issues, using the same physician, or taking the same prescription. Up to this point, reading comments has been the extent of that connection.

Well, that’s changing big time!

With the new enhancements, users can mark comments as helpful and the writer will be notified when one of their comments is marked as helpful (securely…we’re not sharing your email address). You can also reply to a comment. The original author will receive an email and the reply comment will appear indented. In the example below, Goofball replied to the MattTest comment and MattTest received an email letting him know that someone had replied to his comment.
NOTE: The count for helpful comments is not associated to replies. In this example, two other users found MattTest’s comment to be helpful.

In your profile, you can elect to accept or decline private messages from other users. If you have accepted this option, your profile bar will include a link to compose a message.

If you have received a message, you will be notified in the status bar (found on every page of the application if you are logged in). You can retrieve your message by clicking the message link or from your dashboard.

After you retrieve your message the status will change to read and move to the bottom.

SEARCH

Medical terms are difficult to understand and even more difficult to spell! The search functionality has been expanded to include a “Did you mean” suggestion to expedite your search process. This functionality is available as shown with health issues, but is also available for services, insurances, providers and prescriptions.

If you have any questions or need further clarification about these changes or any other issues on the site, please feel free to contact us at 800-655-0732 ext. 1 or email us at info@changehealthcare.com.

Be on the lookout for other changes in about 30 days! An inside source leads me to believe that activity feeds will look very different!