Quit Wasting My Healthcare

Castlight Health Receives Major Funding for Price-Transparency

July 1, 2010 – 12:02 pm by DrEric

A recent article in the New York Times (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/bringing-comparison-shopping-to-the-doctors-office/?scp=1&sq=castlight,%20price-transparency&st=csedescribes) describes how Castlight Health has raised over $80 million to create a healthcare price-transparency solution for employers and individuals. Compass has been providing a healthcare price-transparency solution to employers for three years and Castlight Health raised $80 million to try to do what Compass is doing. Prominent venture capitalists and the Cleveland Clinic gave Castlight Health $80 million for a similar value proposition to Compass. Castlight's fundraising further supports the Compass value proposition. If we were the only people to think of this, then it probably isn’t a good idea. Compass' 120+ employer clients in 46 states are actively using Compass to shop for lower cost healthcare services. Not only are Compass customers saving money, but they also have higher levels of benefit satisfaction and feel very supported during the paradigm shift to a consumer directed health plan.

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Compass in Recent Insure.com Article

May 10, 2010 – 8:23 am by DrEric

Compass Chief Medical Officer, Eric Bricker, MD was recently interviewed for an article on Insure.com on how patients can talk to their doctor about medical costs. Go here to read the article and learn how to talk to doctors about lower cost medications, tests and procedures: http://www.insure.com/articles/healthinsurance/etiquette-of-asking-for-price-breaks-and-free-drugs.html

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Compass Stance on Recent Health Reform Legislation

April 27, 2010 – 8:39 am by DrEric

The recent health reform legislation will continue to alter the landscape of an already dynamic healthcare system. While companies face the regulatory compliance challenges that the legislation brings, it is important that they do not take their eye off of three major healthcare trends: (1) Costs will continue to rise (2) Quality will continue to be variable and inconsistent (3) Access to care will continue to be uncoordinated and limited Consumerism will continue to address these trends in a positive fashion for employers and their employees. There are many examples of this positive effect of consumerism. The Land O'Lakes, Inc experience is just one of them: http://newsroom.cigna.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1144 Now that the legislation has passed, Consumerism will still bring Lower Cost, Improved Quality, Better Access.

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Costs are Rising: You need Compass!

October 19, 2009 – 6:00 am by ScottSchoenvogel

The most recent healthcare article on CNN announces dramatic increases in employee healthcare costs this year: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/19/news/economy/healthcare_openenrollment_changes/index.htm. While no-one wants to see healthcare costs continuing to increase, you can prepare and protect yourself against these changes when you use Compass as your guide. We are only the only service with the market intelligence and consumer savvy to help you get ahead of your healthcare decision making. Compass gives you the tools to know how to spend your money wisely while accessing the quality care you need.

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A Great Column in “The Atlantic”

September 18, 2009 – 9:00 am by ScottSchoenvogel

David Goldhill wrote an article for the The Atlantic titled "How American Healthcare Killed my Father". In the article, he uses his father's death from infection in a NY hospital to discuss healthcare reform and consumerism. David is a self-professed Democrat but he is concerned about reform's effort to disassociate consumerism from the healthcare service process. Here is his last paragraph: "Before we further remove ourselves as direct consumers of healthcare -with all of our beneficial influence on quality, service, and price - let me ask you to consider one more question. Imagine my father's hospital had to submit the bill for his "care" not to a government bureaucracy but to my grieving mother. Do you really believe the hospital - forced to face the victim of its poor quality service, forced to collect the bill from the real customer - wouldn't have figured out how to make its doctors wash their ...

Posted in Behavior Change, Costs of Care, Universal Healthcare | No Comments »

Medical Billing Nightmares

September 16, 2009 – 9:23 am by ScottSchoenvogel

CNN published an artile on avoiding medical billing disasters: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/16/health.medical.bills/index.html The problem is that the entire article missed the one crucial step that is important before going for any type of healthcare service: be an educated consumer. If you know how much the procedure will cost, where to get it for less, and what types of add-on drive additional cost, you will be prepared to manage your healthcare bill before it ever arrives and protect yourself from potentially devastating costs.

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Advocacy is Just the Beginning

September 14, 2009 – 8:00 am by ScottSchoenvogel

The NYTimes had a recent article on advocacy: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/health/12patient.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 Unfortunately, this article is a regression to the type of article written 3-5 years ago. The field of advocacy is changing dramatically from the "find a doctor" / "fight a bill" to a comprehensive professional service that helps people not only navigate the health system and deal with problems but sophisticated pricing and quality data as well that allows you to become an empowered consumer. While the old world of patient advocacy will continue to exist, I would encourage patients and consumers to seek out this new level of professional experience to take control of their health care.

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Increasing Focus on Cost Comparison Tools

September 11, 2009 – 2:16 pm by ScottSchoenvogel

Davis Martin from CNN just wrote a new story on how to bargain hunt for healthcare services: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/10/health.care.price.comparison/index.html This is just one article in a larger number of writings recently that have started to focus on how to accurately calculate / negotiate the true cost of care (thus saving money by comparison shopping and becoming effective healthcare consumers). Compass is thrilled by the focus on what it believes is the key to controlling healthcare costs. Unfortunately, some of the messages in these articles are misleading. The true cost of care is what your insurance has contracted to pay your doctor or hospital. The hospital pricing tools sponsored by hospitals typically reflect only the charge. The charge is generally unrelated to the true cost of care which is set by a contract with your insurance company. Likewise, services such as New Choice Health simply use Medicare cost data and multiply it by some factor ...

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Vaccination Costs

September 9, 2009 – 5:10 am by ScottSchoenvogel

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/08/news/economy/health_care_vaccinations/index.htm There have been some interesting articles on how vaccination costs have risen to the point where group health insurance compensation is insufficient to support physician administration of vaccinations. In the individual insurance market there are even more complications - most benefit plans limit vaccination and preventive care coverage to $300 per year. This is just one more area where you will need the right expertise to make sure your physician provides critical services and if not, where can you get the best value for your money.

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Top 5 Procedure Groups for Consumer Savings

August 28, 2009 – 7:35 am by ScottSchoenvogel

Here are the top five procedure groups where a savvy consumer can sometimes cut cost by up to 80% of the market norm: 1. Heart Catheterization 2. Labor / Delivery 3. Outpatient Gastro-Intestinal Procedures (Colonoscopies / Endoscopies) 4. Advanced Imaging (MRI / CT Scan) 5. Back Surgeries

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Quit Wasting My Healthcare

Castlight Health Receives Major Funding for Price-Transparency

Compass in Recent Insure.com Article

Compass Stance on Recent Health Reform Legislation

Costs are Rising: You need Compass!

A Great Column in “The Atlantic”

Medical Billing Nightmares

Advocacy is Just the Beginning

Increasing Focus on Cost Comparison Tools

Vaccination Costs

Top 5 Procedure Groups for Consumer Savings

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