Check out Robert’s story and My Healthcare Is Killing Me featured on CNN’s Empowered Patient.
(Click on the story title in green to view the video!)
Check out the “Executive Appointments” in the City Paper.
CNN has posted 6 ways to save money on drugs and doctors and change:healthcare and My Healthcare Is Killing Me are included!!! Check out the short list below, or the full 6 tips on their site.
1. Discount Dental Care
2. Cheaper Contact Lenses
3. Discount Drugs
4. Lower Hospital Bills
5. Even Lower Hospital Bills - “Whether your bill is big or small, it pays to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with doctors and hospitals. Click here for a free PDF version of the new book “My Healthcare is Killing Me,” which offers tips on negotiating as well as other hints on saving money on health expenses.”
6. A Great Tax Deduction - www.changehealthcare.com can help you “keep track of your expenses, and when they get big enough, the site automatically gives you a report ready for submission to the IRS.”
Download a PDF of the CNN article.
George Sibble has been named director of finance and strategy for change:healthcare inc.
“George brings both experience and exuberance to the change:healthcare table,” Parks said in making the appointment. “As we continue to grow and our opportunities broaden, we’ll lean on his financial expertise to help us further strengthen the bottom line. And that will allow Robert and me to continue focusing on other aspects of our company’s development. George’s entrepreneurial experiences will definitely benefit both us and our customers.”
Sibble graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in August 2006 and is currently completing an MBA at the Owen Graduate School of Management. During his collegiate career, he served Owen as a Systems Analyst and the School of Engineering as an Information Technology Analyst, successfully tackling large scale IT-related projects for both schools.
He is currently President of the Max Adler Student Investment Fund at Vanderbilt and was Chief Executive Officer of a Boston, MA-based company, Paintball Guru, before selling his interest in the web-based business. Sibble is currently working at change:healthcare in an interim capacity and is expected to join permanently in January.
Download the complete press release here.
Or check out coverage by the Tennessean.
Employee Benefit Adviser says change:healthcare has “made good” on the long-promised healthcare consumerism tools slated to accompany consumer directed health plan and healthcare savings accounts.
EBA Raw Bar says “Good tools and data have long been promised to America’s new breed of health care consumer. Parks is making good on that promise with his health care consumerism index. Listen in as he talks about how it works and how simple consumption changes can save companies thousands of dollars.”
BNET “the place to-go for management” briefs the Healthcare Consumerism Index. Check out the link here.
Check out the PDF here cdhc-solutions.
Or sign-up for a free subscription to CDHC Solutions and read it on the web here.
“New consumer index analyzes care costs
Nashville-based change:healthcare inc. has started a Healthcare Consumerism Index, a product to help companies and consumers judge the cost-effectiveness of their health-care purchases.
The index analyzes a company’s inpatient and outpatient care and prescriptions to identify the highest and lowest prices paid for comparable products and services within an employee population.”
See the article on the Tennessean website.
We’ve got a hero in our midst.
Well, we always knew he was a neat guy and great boss, but now he’s an official, bona fide hero.
The Nashville Business Journal has just named our own Christopher Parks one of a handful of Healthcare Heroes. In a market like Nashville that arguably has been a healthcare Mecca for several decades now, that’s a pretty big deal. CP was tapped in the “Innovator” category — a professional who is breaking new ground in the medical arena through a new advancement or an improvement of efficiencies or a current initiative.
Many of you are well familiar with Christopher’s story… which is intertwined with the change:healthcare story.
In 2006, Christopher lost both parents to cancer. In working through the piles of medical bills, invoices and EOBs that accompanied their care, he found himself unable to make heads or tails of all the paperwork. Despite having worked seventeen years in the healthcare industry, CP learned that sorting through mountains of medical bills and related documents was more than frustrating. It was almost impossible. And not nearly as much fun as a colonoscopy.
After reasoning that the healthcare system shouldn’t be this confusing, nor its paperwork so overwhelming, he united a variety of programmers and created something he called MedBillManager, a web-based tool aimed at helping consumers organize, track and manage their medical bills. Those of you who have been with us since the early days will recall this product, which also helped users compare healthcare costs and quality with peers in secure confidence.
The product put consumers back in the healthcare driver seat just as the new dynamic of consumer-driven healthcare was gaining traction. So joining with fellow entrepreneur Robert Hendrick, who had his own story to tell concerning challenges with the industry, Christopher created change:healthcare and transformed MedBillManager into the “change:healthcare bill management tool.”
With a focus to promote transparency in the healthcare industry by following the dollar for the consumer.
You know the rest. Today, the company provides cost and quality information about providers, prescriptions, health issues and insurances to consumers to help them better understand and navigate the healthcare system. But Christopher has also been lead us toward employers, as well, to help them help employees take control of their healthcare benefits… and make smarter decisions that save everyone time and money.
A little over a year later, more than 15,000 users are sharing vital information concerning more than 2.5 million providers and 10,000 medical services through the change:healthcare platform.
And it all started with a guy who didn’t like the way the healthcare system overwhelmed him. A healthcare hero.
And I knew him when…..
Nashville Medical News has written a great story and we wanted to make sure to share it with our readers.
Check it out online at here - Nashville Medical News. Or you may download the (PDF) Healthcare Enterprise: change:healthcare.
Highlights: Today, change:healthcare offers consumers access to a medical bill-management platform as well as other information to help them make educated choices about providers, payers, prescription drugs and more. Earlier this year, the company began the transition from a subscription-based service to a service employers may buy and offer their employees. There are still free services on the site, too.
“Employers are wanting to reconnect with their employees. If they don’t get employees engaged with what their healthcare costs are, they really don’t have any chance of controlling the costs at all,” Hendrick explained. Thus, change:healthcare is reaching out to human-resources departments, benefits consultants and third-party administrators, selling them on the attributes offered by change:healthcare and the ability of empowered, knowledgeable consumers to save money.
Out of Tragedy, a Commitment to Change Healthcare is Born
When both of Christopher Parks' parents passed away within a year of each other in 2006, he was left with more than just grief.
