Website Creates an Actual Market for Health Care Services
Created by a doctor, a lawyer and a former benefits manager, Open Health Market is an online matchmaker of sorts: Employers submit requests for proposals for a category of medical services and procedures – knee surgeries, for example, or cardiac care. Health care providers then submit competing bids, which are then evaluated by the employer.
Full article on the online patient/provider “matchmaker,” Open Health Market.
Shhh. Don’t tell the government regulators this is going on.
Sounds like just what we need.
Intriguing.
Excellent idea.
But is it really an actual market? My skepticism of these services (Medibid and Castlight are similar) is that the customer is the group, i.e. the patient’s employer. I have a lot of trouble visualizing Procter & Gamble’s HR department putting out an RFP for all the knee operations its employees and dependents will need this year, like they put out an RFP for an IT project or new office furniture.
I don’t blame the businesses that we’re discussing: You can’t make money by offering transparency to consumers for a fee. Nevertheless, I’m not sure that these folks can add value that groups like the Pacific Business Group on Health, for example, have been trying for years. (Note that I use the verb “trying” not “succeeding.”)