The developer of a web-based hospital comparison tool is hoping to parlay its success in a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation app challenge into a new mobile platform.
NerdWallet, the San Francisco-based developer of credit card comparison and personal finance web resources, has seen its first healthcare product reach the final round of the RWJF Hospital Price Transparency Challenge. The Best Hospital web application is one of five finalists in the contest, which will see a winner chosen at the mHealth Summit this December in Washington D.C.
For Christina Lamontagne, the former venture capitalist hired by NerdWallet earlier this year to lead its new healthcare department, the RWJF challenge is the ideal venue to push the company's goal of "democratizing knowledge."
"Most patients visit a doctor wearing a blindfold to the price of health services," she said. "We are working hard to inform patients of the prices – and even the great range of prices at hospitals within a few miles of each other – so that patients can better manage their medical and financial health."
Lamontagne said the Best Hospital web application is separated into three sections. By entering a hospital treatment and location, a user can research the Lowest Price Tag (the hospital with the lowest chargemaster price in the selected region), the Most Experienced (the hospital providing the most of this type of treatment in a year) and the Most Recommended (the hospital with the highest patient satisfaction rating).
"Patients are no longer passive in their healthcare visits," Lamontagne said during a recent interview with mHealthNews. "They want to plan ahead and get all the information they can get … before (first visiting) a hospital."
The RWJF competition was launched in June, targeting technology that can help consumers understand and use data that compares hospital prices – in this case, the prices published this past May by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the 100 most common inpatient procedures. The first phase of the competition focused on visualization, and five semi-finalists were announced at the recent Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco.
"The challenge asks technology developers to transform these data into intuitive, actionable tools," said Katherine Hempstead, PhD, the RWJF's senior program officer, in a June 3 press release announcing the competition. "We hope this will spark discussion and innovation that will help further progress toward increased price transparency in healthcare."
One winner will be chosen from those five semi-finalists on December 9 at the mHealth Summit, taking place at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center just outside of Washington, D.C. In all, the five semi-finalists will share $120,000 in prize money.
While the Best Hospital app is currently web-based, Lamontagne said its next iteration will push the process onto mobile devices, as more than a quarter of NerdWallet's web traffic now is mobile- or social media-based. She sees hospital price transparency as a natural fit for mobile devices, as consumers want information whenever and wherever they need it.
That next phase will also tie into the national health insurance exchange.
"The next phase of the tool is an integration with our Obamacare Plan Finder," Lamontagne said. "We help consumers anticipate their health costs so they determine the right amount of health insurance they require."
