In less than a week, a few of us will be in San Francisco for the Health 2.0 conference as well as attending the HealthCamp SF Bay. We are excited to be part of such an innovative group of folks trying to make changes in the healthcare world. You may be asking… what is this HealthCamp thing?

What is HealthCamp

HealthCamp is about putting social media, open source and the best of the Internet, Mobile Web and process innovation to work for better health care and health technology. HealthCamp is a user-organized “un–conference” movement that brings consumers, health providers, health industry experts and technology professionals together for a one day event to exchange ideas informally, locally, openly. Participants themselves provide the content, with break-out sessions they develop themselves and plug into a schedule grid on the day of the event. Anyone can present and host a session in nearly any format.

#HCSFBay is our hashtag on Twitter, please use it and spread the word!

How to Find Us

Well, if you don’t know who we are or what we do, you can take a peek at our sexy personal detiails to see pictures and bios for us (Christopher Parks, Robert Hendrick and Chris McIntyre). If you are wondering what we do, head on over to http://www.changehealthcare.com and see how we can help you save money on your health related expenses.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter, that is the best way to keep up with us when we are on the road!

• Christopher Parks – @caparks
• Robert Hendrick – @jrh3
• Chris McIntyre – @theferf
• change:healthcare – @askch

See you there!

As online physician rating sites become more and more prevalent, some doctors are asking their patients to sign waivers (provided by a NC based company – Medical Justice) to prevent them from providing online feedback without prior consent from the physician.

change:healthcare CEO Christopher Parks, shared his opinion on the matter with Getahn Ward of the Tennessean. Here are some of the highlights:

Parks says, “”It’s never worked in our society to try to constrain or restrain perceptions or feedback,” he said. “The more you tell people to be quiet, the louder they want to yell.” He, however, believes that physicians should be allowed to offer their perspectives and that the ratings sites have a responsibility to filter out comments that are libelous.

Doctors, he added, should encourage all of their patients to rate their experiences. “As a general consumer, I won’t let one horrible rating sway my perception or cause me to devalue that provider,” he said. “It’s the trend — what’s the majority of the ratings.”

To view the complete article visit the Tennessean website or download the PDF here

Check out Christophers segment in the Great American Motorcycle Tour with Dr. David Kibbe (his interview starts around 11 min 30 sec.)!

The Daily Herald featured a story on change:healthcare, My Healthcare Is Killing Me, and Christopher Parks.

The PDF of “My Healthcare Is Killing Me Teaches Consumers Smart Healthcare Tips” can be downloaded here.

Christopher talks health care costs, the book, and transparency on Forbes.com!!

Check out the article on the web.

Or download the PDF.

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…..

In an unexpected move, we are closing 600 of our satellite offices throughout the country. While there will be no impact on our top line, we should see a significant improvement in our bottom line as there will be far fewer Starbucks out there where we can abuse our expense accounts.

Please bear with us during this difficult time and hope for the best as we deal with Christopher’s withdrawals.