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Here’s a couple of excerpts from an article (link below) published today on Fortune about a company likening itself to a warehouse club for health insurance:
… in 2009, Transparent Healthcare was born — with the goal of providing access to a health network with clear pricing that could be used by the undocumented, the uninsured, and even those with insurance that still faced massive deductibles…
Here’s how it works: You pay $39/month to Transparent (or $375/year), and both you and your family gain access to discounted prices at a wide network of doctors and medical facilities (as well as free video consulting with doctors via Teladoc, which just raised $50 million in funding). You must pay cash for each visit, which is part of the appeal to doctors who spend much of their profits on billing and collections. But you have the advantage of knowing exactly what your expenses will be before you go forward. In effect, Heiman’s company is like a warehouse club; you’re paying a subscription fee for access to discounts. “We are Costco for health insurance,” Heiman says. The discounts themselves average approximately 20% off of the Medicare rate.
The site itself came out of beta earlier this year; for several years it was limited to 400 users to test the types of services that were most in demand. So far, Transparent has signed up about 4,000 people, mostly in the New York area. But Heiman says she expects 10 times that number within the next six to eight months, because the company is currently expanding into Atlanta, as well as parts of Florida and Texas.
Will it work? Should it work?
Transparent Healthcare: the Costco for health insurance - Fortune
… in 2009, Transparent Healthcare was born — with the goal of providing access to a health network with clear pricing that could be used by the undocumented, the uninsured, and even those with insurance that still faced massive deductibles…
Here’s how it works: You pay $39/month to Transparent (or $375/year), and both you and your family gain access to discounted prices at a wide network of doctors and medical facilities (as well as free video consulting with doctors via Teladoc, which just raised $50 million in funding). You must pay cash for each visit, which is part of the appeal to doctors who spend much of their profits on billing and collections. But you have the advantage of knowing exactly what your expenses will be before you go forward. In effect, Heiman’s company is like a warehouse club; you’re paying a subscription fee for access to discounts. “We are Costco for health insurance,” Heiman says. The discounts themselves average approximately 20% off of the Medicare rate.
The site itself came out of beta earlier this year; for several years it was limited to 400 users to test the types of services that were most in demand. So far, Transparent has signed up about 4,000 people, mostly in the New York area. But Heiman says she expects 10 times that number within the next six to eight months, because the company is currently expanding into Atlanta, as well as parts of Florida and Texas.
Will it work? Should it work?
Transparent Healthcare: the Costco for health insurance - Fortune
