The Nashville Business Journal published an article in October (that I somehow missed), highlighting Nashville’s push toward consumerism in health care.

Here is what they had to say about change:healthcare:

“Change:healthcare launched a new version of its Medstimate cost ratings tool in May. It features comprehensive pricing data for hospital inpatient and outpatient services.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from the providers is sort of mixed,” says Robert Hendrick, the company’s co-founder and chief operations officer. “We have providers that are understandably a little nervous about it because they feel like it’s exposing their prices. Then we have some relatively forward-thinking providers who are saying that this is information we need, too, because they’re not really consistent in their pricing. They’re looking for what is the market for health care services.”

The Nashville company was formed in 2006 by Hendrick and fellow health care executive Christopher Parks to simplify the medical bill-paying process through the company’s cornerstone MedBillManager tool.

Hendrick says the tools and data provided by change:healthcare are unique to the health care industry.

The company received $1 million from Nashville investment firm Solidus in 2007 and projects between $6 million and $9 million in revenue within three years, Hendrick says.

Change:healthcare is also marketing a new book titled “My Healthcare is Killing Me,” authored by Hendrick, Parks and Katrina Welty of the company’s management team. It is billed as a consumer’s guide to the complex health care industry and has been featured on CNN’s “House Call” medical program.

“The cost of health care is going up in double-digit percentages each year,” Hendrick says. “It’s killing the employers. The employers have reached a point where many of them have said, ‘I just can’t do this anymore.’ They are pushing more of the cost to the employee.”

Click to view the complete article online or download a complete PDF of the article HERE.