Managing Medical Bills – Free Trial

As anyone who has done anything outside normal knows, getting and managing your medical claims can be very confusing.  When should you pay?  When should you resubmit?  When is it simply an error?

I was encouraged to learn about a new company MedBillManager which has recently secured some funding.  They have a blog where you can read some thoughts and you can read about them in a WSJ article.  The WSJ points out other companies such as WebMD, RevolutionHealth, and Intuit that provide tools to help get you organized and/or provide information.

Here is a screenshot.  The team there offered my readers a free one year subscription ($24.95 savings).  Go to  https://prod.medbillmanager.com/account/signup  and click on the “Got a free plan code? Claim it” link… enter in gvareader1.  I think they would welcome the feedback.

Much like the OutofPocket.com that I blogged about the other day, this is heavily dependent upon adoption to drive value.  Being able to compare costs by treatment, geography, insurer, and physician is valuable long-term in a consumer driven world, but it needs participation to have enough detail at at specific segment.

The other key for success will be integration of data directly from the payors.  I don’t mind entering a few EOBs and bills to see some data, but eventually, I want them to be pre-populated and then use the application for reporting and analysis.   Blend this with a technology such as that from ActiveHealth and a PHR and you have an integrated data selection that tracks costs, compares data, and pushes suggestions to you about wellness and health management.

This is probably what RevolutionHealth is doing.  I am sure we will see some more rollups over the next few years to pull all these solutions together.