I’d like to start with a disclaimer: my colleagues and I are completely focused on empowering consumers to take greater control of their own health. However, since healthcare organizations don’t give a damn about this, I’ve decided to take a different approach: let me help you get paid. Huh? Those two goals - consumer empowerment and provider collections - seem at direct odds with one another. They are not. Despite what overpaid consultants and healthcare payments specialists are telling you,
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Why Healthcare Is Incapable Of “Plugging-In” New Solutions
The first time I heard Par8o’s tagline “Healthcare’s Operating System,” I remember thinking to myself, “what the hell does that mean?” I now think I have a pretty good idea. Over the last two and a half years, my partners and I have been on a journey to transform the healthcare consumer experience. We began this journey by developing a patent-pending process for creating virtual health insurance cards. Beyond providing consumers real-time information on plan benefits, the
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Healthcare On-Demand, Airbnb Style
If healthcare is becoming “cashified” as I previously discussed, and I am buying healthcare services on my own - I want an experience like Airbnb. The realization came on a flight back from San Diego. We had just met with a potential investor who was incredibly interested in our startup, but who ultimately balked when he learned how long it takes health systems to make purchasing decisions. True enough, but a little oblique of our actual business model... Ah rejection, like a pair of fuzzy
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Why Healthcare Price Transparency Is So Murky
I’ve spent the better part of the last two years trying to improve price transparency in healthcare. When my startup, Medlio, began down this path, we had a very simple vision - that consumers should be able to use their smartphones to find, connect, and transact with their healthcare providers. By "transact," I mean schedule appointments, submit medical forms and insurance information, receive an upfront estimate of the cost of the visit, make payment, and receive their data afterwards. Now,
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The “Cashification” of Healthcare
It’s understandable that so many people automatically assume that health insurance provides a benefit. After all, we’ve been conditioned for so long to think that insurance, through some arrangement with our employer, is actually picking up the tab. If that’s true, why not go with the steak instead of the chicken, and for that matter, why not throw in dessert? For anyone who thinks we haven’t been acting like perfect healthcare consumers for the last 30 years, you may want a refresher on
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