It looks like the health industry is about to become a lot more transparent. With all the rules, regulations and opaque pricing schemes, it’s a change welcomed by many.

Comparison-shopping sites for this industry have popped up. One example is Vimo, which collects data on medical procedures. Consumers can search and do a price comparison. People can also submit details about incurred charges. If the amount to be paid isn’t the lowest wholesale rate available from a hospital or other provider, Vimo will negotiate a lower price for a cut of the savings. Vimo will also make money from referrals to insurers and, eventually, physicians and products. (The company received USD 10 million in funding from Bessemer and Trinity Ventures.)

Then there’s MyMedicalControl which only focusses on negotiating bills. According to the NewYorkTimes, a hospital chain with multiple locations may have 150 rates for the same procedure.

Also new on the internet is a software to manage your medical bills; MedBillManager. MedBillManager is a new web application that makes dealing with medical bills easier and allows you to compare what you’re paying vs. others.

This is all just America, so if you’re from abroad you might just want to look into the opportunities here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Columns, Business Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.