New Services Help Unsnarl Medical Bills
By Christopher Lawton
The Wall Street Journal
September 4, 2007
MedBillManager (an online tool from health-care services company Change:Healthcare LLC that helps users organize their medical bills) is one of many online services popping up to help consumers take a more active role in their medical care. Intuit Inc., maker of the Turbo Tax software, offers software called Medical Expense Manager to help consumers deal with their medical expenses, for a cost of $50. Revolution Health Group LLC, a consumer-focused health company formed in 2005 by America Online co-founder Steve Case, charges $129 a year for a premium health-care service that includes an online application to help users handle their medical expenses.
Apart from automatic error detection, SmartMedicalConsumer also has medical-billing experts that man an online forum for members to ask questions. Revolution Health’s premium service goes one step further by calling up insurance companies and fighting over disputed claims on a user’s behalf.
The new services are springing up at a time when employers and legislators are pushing more health-care responsibilities on to workers.
“For better or for worse, people are more and more on their own in health care,” says Ron Klain, executive vice president of Revolution Health, based in Washington, D.C.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118886008399016278.html.html
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
As the government continues to ignore the health care financing crisis, the market responds – by selling us even more wasteful administrative services.
What will be the next product? A service to organize the medical bill organization services of MedBillManager, Medical Expense Manager, SmartMedicalConsumer, Revolution Health, and others?