“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 …
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 …
The Tennessean highlighted change:healthcare and Data Advantage. Continue to watch as we move into more transparent territory. You can download the pdf new sites help people find the best values in health care
Highlights: “change:healthcare — a startup — recently re-launched its cost ratings tool on the
Web called Medstimate. It uses claims data showing the negotiated prices that providers accept,
plus other patient-submitted information, to create the free service.”
“Robert Hendrick, change:healthcare’s chief operating officer, attributes the shift to more
health-care costs being passed on to consumers through higher co-pays, steeper deductibles
and the requirement to pay a percentage of the cost of services rather than a flat co-pay.”
“Out-of-pocket costs ranked second only to quality data, such as mortality or complication rates in
selecting hospitals, according to survey of 755 respondents by The Advisory Board Co., in
Washington, D.C. Costs were a bigger factor than satisfaction, physician recommendations and
distance.”
Onward and upward!
Got some nice ink today from our friends over at The Tennessean in the Healthcare section. Thanks to Getahn Ward there.
And double congrats to our friends at Data Advantage who got some in the same article. They have a nice new web site, too.
Be sure to check out what Data Advantage is doing with their Hospital Value Index.
And don’t miss their article in the WSJ!
Congrats!
Check out the Nashville Business Journal from Friday. Startup surfs transparency wave. Because you cannot read the whole article online… Click here to download the .pdf.
Highlights:
“The company has radically revamped its online Medstimate service, which discloses pricing for services from more than 1.5 million doctors and hospitals and price ranges for more than 10,000 medical services.”
“Customers can use Medstimate to reveal price transparency on everything from major surgery to a month’s supply of medication. For example, a Medstimate search shows price ranges at local hospitals for colon cancer treatment vary greatly, depending on the hospital. At Vanderbilt University Hospital, the range is $49,054 to $53,653. At Saint Thomas Hospital it’s $22,258 to $24,344.”
“Hendrick says he’s not trying to persuade consumers to always go for the least expensive alternative because there can be valid reasons for paying more. But the information derived from a …
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.
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 …
Christopher recently took a chance to opine on the editorial pages of the Tennessean about healthcare transparency. For those who might have missed it, you can download the PDF.
The Wall Street Journal recently mentioned change:healthcare as one of the ways to help “unsnarl” medical bills. Download the article.
