WellNet Introduces Facebook-like Point to Point Healthcare®
Technology Suite Provides Employees with Market Changing Engagement Tools; Ninety-two Percent of Employers Say the System is Crucial to Limiting Health Plan Costs
Bethesda, MD (PRWEB) July 14, 2009
WellNet Healthcare (http://www. wellnethealthcare. com), a healthcare technology company that enables companies to better manage their healthcare costs by analyzing their benefit programs to understand why costs are rising and implement actionable strategies to reduce expenses, today announced the formal launch of Point to Point Healthcare (P2P), developed by its healthcare technology subsidiary Healthcare Interactive (http://www. hciactive. com).
P2P, which has been in beta testing with select customers over the last year, is a Facebook (http://www. facebook. com)-like social networking platform that allows consumers to manage their healthcare from a single, secure Web 2.0 application. P2P's all-inclusive platform helps close the gap between having a partially-informed and a fully-informed consumer, like its sister component, the Active Reporting System (ARS), does for plan sponsors (employers).
The introduction of the P2P component rounds out WellNet's Healthcare Performance Management (HPM) (http://www. wellnethealthcare. com/pdf/healthcareperformancemanagement. pdf) software suite, and shakes up the healthcare industry via a solution that increases choice, competition and transparency and the ability to positively impact the delivery and cost of care in both the private and public sectors.
Sample P2P platform features include:
A communication wall that allows consumers to request and receive help on a myriad of healthcare-related issues ranging from prescription medicine refills, to complex case management, to insurance claims. Tools with which consumers can manage their healthcare on an ongoing basis. A pass-through version of their electronic medical record hosted by industry leaders such as Microsoft's HealthVault™ (http://www. healthvault. com/) and Google Health (http://www. google. com/health). A view of consumers current prescription medications that includes potential substitutes and alternatives, access to telemedicine, care management and wellness services.
"In the past, I wasn't able to see more detail on where my company's healthcare dollars were going," said Martin Gausvik, CFO of Cumulus Media (http://www. cumulus. com/), a Blackstone Group (http://www. blackstone. com/) portfolio company. "With ARS, I now understand where I am spending my money and how I can avoid future expenses while raising the level of employee engagement with P2P."
Regardless of the type of insurance or the particular health plan, P2P consolidates, in a single location, the information and resources necessary for consumers to make more informed decisions. P2P does not pretend to confer an MD on consumers, but it does give them the level of information buyers typically collect before purchasing an automobile, dishwasher or computer - options, pricing, availability, alternatives, pros and cons, etc.
"America's current health system is mired by disjointed, untimely and hard-to-find information, hidden profit centers and monopolies in some markets. Those using and paying for healthcare, whether employers or consumers, are saddled with its inefficiencies and exorbitant costs," said Keith Lemer, president of WellNet Healthcare. "The revolution in healthcare won't be in electronic medical records, but in using technology like P2P and ARS to find out how to cut costs to make service more affordable. WellNet's HPM solution increases the transparency and the flow of information to both the consumer and the health plan sponsor (employer) so as to increase health and drive down cost."
About WellNet
WellNet Healthcare enables companies and their executive management team to measure and manage their healthcare costs by finding and fixing problems using real-time healthcare information to make better business decisions that lower healthcare costs. WellNet's technology subsidiary, Healthcare Interactive, provides a platform for employers and employees to view and manage healthcare costs in a dashboard format. Visit their Web site at www. wellnethealthcare. com.
About ARS
Like P2P, Active Reporting System (ARS), launched in 4Q08, removes the veil that blurs employers' views of their second or third largest expense line item: their company's healthcare expense. Providing aggregated, unidentifiable employee health data in a real-time, secure, easy-to-use dashboard, ARS enables company executives to understand where their health plan is working, whether the health coverage is meeting employees' needs and if health plan members could benefit from additional health or wellness services. In a recent ARS features survey, 100% of executive management said that the system provided access to important heath plan data that they could not access before, while 92% said ARS was crucial to limiting health plan costs. Precision targeting of problem areas increases the efficiency of each dollar spent on healthcare and truly enables the C-suite and others involved in decision making to measure and manage their healthcare expenses as they would any other area within their business operations, all while actually improving the health of their employee population.
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