Hospitals, Startups

Amino sheds light on procedure costs based on plans with latest website update

"Knowing what's been billed for specific procedures, and specific doctors gives everyone confidence in a world where it's nearly impossible to find how much you owe until you get the bill weeks later," CEO David Vivero said.

Amino procedure estimator mapAmino, a health IT startup that launched a platform to help visitors to its website look up ratings for doctors in close proximity by specialty and book appointments, has integrated a procedure cost component to its platform. It launched the procedure cost calculator at the MedCity CONVERGE conference in Philadelphia this week.

In a phone interview, Amino co-founder and CEO David Vivero said that a key element to its approach is breaking down for patients not only the cost but also a comparison of what other practices at the same zip code would charge for the same procedure. In a demo, Vivero showed that the median cost for the procedure is highlighted in purple, procedure costs below the median appear in green and those above the median are flagged up in red. The cost estimates are based on the insurance company’s claims database.

Its new component includes 48 procedures across 129 plans, adding up to 64 million different prices. Vivero emphasized that the costs were simply estimates. If patients suffer complications or keyhole surgery is used, that could drive up costs. In addition to procedures, it also estimates the cost of office visits.

“The goal is to enable users to research, compare and understand what costs they’ll be responsible for in advance,” Vivero said. A built-in glossary helps to interpret the meaning of terms like co-insurance.

“We’ve spent months surveying healthcare consumers and looking into the digital paper trail of healthcare within our database to help people answer not only ‘where can I get care?’ but also ‘how much will this cost?'” Vivero said. “Knowing what’s been billed for specific procedures, and specific doctors gives everyone confidence in a world where it’s nearly impossible to find how much you owe until you get the bill weeks later.”

 

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