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Banks have spreadsheet level account information - debits, credits, categories and labels. Not a very broad set of information to parse. Most banks offered seve
by MJR 15y ago
Banks have spreadsheet level account information - debits, credits, categories and labels. Not a very broad set of information to parse. Most banks offered several common formats for this data and it was readily available online - albeit with some caveats. Health insurance on the other hand is nothing like that.
For example - Showing a BCBS logo is hardly representative of the 39 separate companies which are part of the BCBS Association. Good luck trying to wrangle connecting to each of these companies and then trying to decipher the individual plan-level benefits of thousands of customized plans at each specific insurer. Employer's routinely customize benefits for their employee offered plans. These benefits are detailed in your benefit booklet or member guide which you probably get by mail and maybe have access to in a PDF online. Parsing and then reporting on that info is a tall order and that's if you can even get access to it.
This is in addition to the legal hoops that you'll have to jump through to even explore the ramifications of transferring PHI(Personal Health Information) from insurers and storing it elsewhere. Once explored you have to get permission to acquire this information - another difficult hurdle if its even possible.
TLDR - They're in for a long climb up a very steep hill.
- Qz 15y agoIt's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.
- bostonvaulter2 15y agoThose are some very formidable challenges. Maybe they could start with the ability to compare plans to help you choose the correct (probably publicly available) plan.
- andrewpbrett 15y agoThis is a great point, and something we're definitely aware of. The short story is that we think it's worth the trouble to build something that provides this for the end user, and we've made some significant progress on that path already. As a shameless plug, if you're interested in helping us get there, we're hiring: cakehealth.com/jobs
- MJR 15y agoOh yeah - and I forgot to mention state health exchanges coming in 2014. One question I'm really curious about - how do you plan to make money? Are you going to try to achieve agent/broker status? Sell ads to different insurers? Or just wait and see?