ehealthxchange.com Is Transforming Healthcare – A Consumer Driven Marketplace for Health Care Services

South Florida Hospital News- June 2006
by Jim DiGiorgio

If all the predictions about the rise of consumerism in health care come to fruition, then a soon to be launched web service called ehealthxchange.com may have positioned itself in the ‘sweet spot’ of the future health care marketplace. ehealthxchange.com can be best described as an electronic marketplace for transactions between health care consumers, hospitals, physicians, and other health care providers.

Many have been writing about the coming wave of consumerism in health care and how it will transform the current complex marketplace for medical services. However, while the impact of consumerism is evident on some of the fringes of health care, its effect on the core services provided by hospitals and physicians appears limited so far.

With the advent of ehealthxchange.com, this new company plants itself squarely at the center of a new health care marketplace where consumers take direct control of the services they use. Not only has ehealthxchange.com positioned itself at the center of a consumer driven market but through its services it intends to help drive the expansion of consumer’s influence.

Commenting on the inspiration for the business concept, Ken Sellers, President and Founder of New World Health Corporation, Inc. the parent company of ehealthxchange.com said, "My inspiration began in 1997 when I read Regina Herzlinger’s book, Market Driven Health Care. Until then I never really appreciated the power of consumerism in health care and how unleashing it could improve cost, quality and value for patients and enable the medical profession to establish stronger customer relationship bonds with their patients and be more efficient and profitable."

He continued, "Believing as I do about the value of consumerism in health care and the deployment of information transparency through the Internet it became a natural process to envision how ehealthxchange.com could bring value not only to consumers of health care but also to the medical and health care professionals which make up our industry. After all there is nothing really "new" here, it’s just "new" to health care. We all have used companies like Priceline, E-Bay, or Travelocity to purchase services off the internet…why not in health care?"

With the impending launch of its first electronic marketplace serving the South Florida area, ehealthxchange.com touts benefits for all participants in the marketplace. For those consumers purchasing and managing their medical services through this service, it provides a place to shop and compare prices and buy services, assess quality of care and accessibility. According to the website, it allows consumers to ‘spend smart’, particularly for those who use a Health Savings Account (HSA) or are uninsured. Even those who are covered by an HMO, PPO, EPO can use ehealthxchange.com to shop for elective procedures such as cosmetic or Lasik surgery, or for excluded benefits such as pre-existing conditions not covered by insurance. Other services provided to consumers include the ability to make appointments online, obtain loans to help cover medical expenses, and access flat-rate healthcare packaged services. According to Sellers consumers with or without insurance will be able to, "Make appointments on line 24/7. They may choose to store their personal demographic data, insurance information and personal medical history profile on the site, not only for each adult but for each child as well. They can have the added convenience of only filling out the information listed above but once. Then it will be electronically stored in our secured web site until the customer chooses to send it to the doctor they are scheduling an appointment with. No more forms to fill out. Consumer can prepay for services before you go to doctor. They may wish to finance part or all of the deductible and/or coinsurance requirements. They can apply for financing from our website to several financial institutions. They can evaluate physician, hospital, and/or other medical professional’s service, quality and value and provide feedback to them and other members of ehealthxchange.com about the service. If they are traveling long distances for care they can make travel arrangement off our site. If they want additional information about hospital or physician quality assessments or evaluations, additional websites will be just a click away."

"Customers with an HSA policy or plan will be able to track all their expenses purchased off ehealthxchange.com’s web site. This information will be helpful in getting appropriate insurance reimbursements, records for income tax purposes and forecasting future HSA funding."

Benefits for physicians and hospitals participating with ehealthxchange.com include receiving up-front payment for services, reduction in billing costs, receivables, and bad debt. Also, optimization of scheduling by allowing consumers direct access to schedules to turn excess capacity into billable time, pre-registration of patients online which frees up valuable staff time, and exposure to a wider audience of possible patients.

Commenting on the benefits for physicians and hospitals, Sellers said, "There is a unique value proposition offered by ehealthxchange.com. It was specifically designed to help physicians control and manage their business. From managing appointment schedules more efficiently to receiving payment for services in advance, the ehealthxchange.com marketplace will have a positive impact on the profitability, service, efficiency, and image of the physician’s practice."

The scope of listed services available to consumers through ehealthxchange.com is broad. It includes prescription drugs, home health services, skilled nursing facilities, medical supplies, mental health care, occupational, speech and physical therapy, dialysis, chiropractic care, podiatric care, optometry, and dentistry. In addition, you can talk to a physician over the phone, connect with ambulatory surgery centers, and access independent diagnostic centers such as for imaging, lab tests, or cardiovascular care.

After its launch in South Florida in July 2006, ehealthxchange.com has plans to enter other major population centers across the country including, within two to three years, other Florida markets such as Tampa and Orlando, and locations such as Dallas and Houston, Texas, San Diego and San Francisco, California. The future plans also include a presence in Chicago, Atlanta and New York.

Commenting on the state of health care, Sellers concludes, "Having been a healthcare executive for nearly 20 years it was not too difficult to see the end of the HMO product cycle coming. Increasing costs of healthcare were putting pressure on employers to keep the health benefits intact as a tool for employee recruitment. However double digit health insurance premium increases during a five to eight year period doubled the price. We are about to do this all over again within the next five to eight year period.

Employers won’t allow this to happen and quite frankly most American workers can’t afford another doubling of health insurance premiums. That is why I feel ehealthxchange.com will offer an attractive alternative."