Health IT, Patient Engagement, Startups

Castlight Health IPO draws increased attention to healthcare price transparency

Castlight Health’s (NYSE: CSLT) high profile debut has generated a lot of attention on the […]

Castlight Health’s (NYSE: CSLT) high profile debut has generated a lot of attention on the issue of how to make consumers better shoppers for healthcare services by increasing cost management and healthcare price transparency tools.

The shift by the government and employers away from inflationary spending for healthcare every year has spurred the demand for cost management as consumers are expected to pay more for their own healthcare expenses.

“There is no question that consumers will learn more about the price of healthcare just by virtue of all the attention it’s been getting,” said Mitch Rothschild, the CEO of healthcare navigation tool provider Vitals, in a phone interview.

He said what’s unclear is whether it will ultimately be insurers such as Aetna and UnitedHealthcare who provide this information because they want to retain customers or health IT companies such as Castlight Health, which are motivated to be disruptors.

Change Healthcare has some overlapping services in common with Castlight Health but CEO Doug Ghertner points out that is more about consumer engagement. Individuals set their preferences to get customized alerts when the engine thinks it’s found a way for them to save on a procedure or service. Another part of its platform involves using quizzes and gaming tools to raise insurance literacy among its users, something it refers to as Healthcare University.

“We address the lack of engagement on the consumer level,” Ghertner said in a phone interview. “In order to make a difference, we have to bring contextualized information.”

Among other health IT companies that have developed or added price transparency tools are Pokitdok, ClearHealthCosts and Symcat.

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