Everyone wants health care reform, including HealDeal.

As we all know, the issues are complex. A major challenge is who will pay for the increased cost of coverage. The public wants care but doesn’t want to pay for it. Should we have the $250K+ earnings pay for it? Should we tax health benefits, which effectively increases the tax on the middle class? Universal coverage will inevitable increase taxes over the long term.

The public plan option is another sticking point. Obama wants a public plan alternative for those that can’t afford coverage. It’s basically an expanded Medicaid option. Some don’t believe the government is as efficient, effective, and innovative as the private section at running a health plan. Furthermore, health plans worry that it’s not fair for to compete against a government run plan. The American Medical Association (AMA) is also weary of an expanded government run program because of the low reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid. Despite all these challenges, coalitions and all impacted groups from pharma to health plans to providers want to see change.

In addition to all these challenges, Obama wants to fix health care without increasing the deficit!

All this momentum is encouraging and hopefully we can materially increase coverage. While increased coverage will reduce the cost of health care (e.g., use of preventative care, fewer ER visits), more will still need to be done. We believe that until the health care market becomes more of a consumer market, costs will continue to rise faster than inflation. We know other countries which offer universal coverage still suffer from increased cost of health care. Until the incentives are aligned the cost of care will continue to increase.

HealDeal was started to create a free market for health care services. This free market rewards providers for quality work and patients for smart shopping and health behavior. Like others in the health care business, we’re willing to change our business model to accommodate increased coverage but the core reason for our existence will remain the same: bringing free market transparency to health care.

To be a consumer market, you obviously need price information. People know the prices for health insurance [and have seen them rise at a shocking 20% per year for 5 years] but not for diagnosis or procedures. Many people don’t even know the difference between a diagnosis and a procedure.

Some people will tell you this is because health care is so complicated, but that argument doesn’t really make sense. Computers are very complicated but people still shop based on price and quality to find value. People don’t even understand the details of how computers work but they still shop on price that’s to companies like Dell.

Why can’t the purchase of health care services work the same way? It can if we let it and it’s starting to happen. We are seeing announcements almost weekly of public and private organizations offering pricing information from CMS to health plans to retail clinics to startups. The most recent news is the state of California’s launch of a web tool to compare prices for surgeries (www.oshpd.ca.gov).

HealDeal was founded on price transparency and is excited to see how this growing trend can enable consumerism to transform the health care system. Stay tuned…

There are two major trends gaining traction in health care, one negative and one positive. Let’s start with the negative. There are an increasing number of people with access to care. Before the recession started there were 40 – 50 million people in the United States without insurance. The recession has lead to another than 4 million people losing their health insurance. According to the Center for American Progress, 14,000 people lose health coverage every day. Unless there is major health care reform, this trend will continue even after the economy recovers as the cost of health care continues to outpace inflation.

Fortunately, there is a positive, market-drive trend. Healthcare is slowing but surely becoming more retail which is giving more people access to care. Retail clinics have raised a substantial amount of health care venture money in the last several years and they are growing in popularity. Quick Health has opened several retail clinics inside pharmacies around the San Francisco Bay area. I’ve visited most of them and found them to be busy and serving an unmet need. Many of them offer service in Spanish and English to patients that do not have insurance. Minute Clinic and RediClinic are other popular retail clinics in other parts of the country.

People like retail clinics because they make health care more transparent and are customer focused. They can see the prices before they receive treatment and they can receive treatment with or without health insurance. In addition, retail clinics are convenient. You can just show up to a pharmacy that has a retail clinic and signup to see a doctor or nurse practitioner. There usually isn’t a long wait and even if there is a line you can shop for other things while you are waiting.

Like retail clinics, HealDeal is making health care more retail oriented. By visiting HealDeal, patients or consumers can see the cost for treatment without any commitment to purchase. Furthermore, the customer does not need insurance to access this service. People or consumers want value in healthcare like they find in any other industry (particularly those without insurance) and retail oriented approaches are starting to give consumer the tools they need to make value assessments.

Indeed the blog is back after my hibernation period. During this period I was working with my committed and experienced team, on our innovation, HealDeal Inc.

HealDeal is a novel idea driven by the urgent need of these times of rising uninsurance and worsening economy. As it is well written by the esteemed Harvard Business School Professor, Mr. Clayton M. Christensen ‘How hard times can drive innovation’.

We want to help those who are paying for healthcare out of their own pocket (self-pay patients). We believe they must have the right information to make smart choices. This information comes to them directly from their chosen physicians or healthcare provider. Hence providing transparent cost and relevant quality information.

I invite you to engage in this process of innovation by visiting www.healdeal.com, and giving us your feedback.

Archana Dubey, MD