The collaboration was created by Ingenix (who just received a big contract in the state of Washington) and Intuit and the efforts are to help the patient understand those complicated algorithms that are used to determine what you are eligible for with your plan.  This is one more effort in shifting the responsibility to the patient so you know up front if you have money in the till and what has been spent on your healthcare.  It appears that pretty soon if you do not partake in learning some bookkeeping skills along the way you are going to be at a disadvantage.  They are not the only ones offering the software as you can read the post below from April.

Cigna to Offer Quicken Health Expense Tracker, United HealthCare in Beta – Easily Identify Balance Billings?

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UnitedHealth To Spend Tens of Million of Dollars with Cisco to Build Nationwide Telehealth Network

Ok so you will have your web cam visit and have it all downloaded to Quicken Health, right?   Oh and by the way, Ingenix will sell you an EMR too if you want to put all your eggs in one basket.  Ingenix is the business intelligence arm of United HealthCare with proprietary algorithms, in other words we don’t get to see or are not advised on how they work, like the ones Goldman uses for example on Wall Street, also proprietary. 

WellPoint (Blue Cross) and Aetna Profits Sink – UnitedHealthCare Profits Doubled

Again, I ponder, is this an insurance or technology company?  BD 

MINNEAPOLIS & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, is expanding the availability of Quicken Health Expense TrackerSM to help nearly 700,000 of its commercial health plan enrollees nationwide better manage their health-related finances and information.

Developed by Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) and UnitedHealth Group’s Ingenix subsidiary, Quicken Health Expense Tracker helps consumers organize and understand their health care financial information in a simple, clear way that will help them make more informed decisions about their medical expenses.

Following a successful pilot program, UnitedHealthcare is now offering employees of select large-business customers access to Quicken Health Expense Tracker and expects to make it available to more than 20 million commercial health plan participants by year end.

“We are making it easier for consumers to manage their health-related finances at a time when these individuals are taking more ownership of their health care decisions,” said Mike Matteo, CEO of United Healthcare's national accounts business that serves large employers. “With this ownership comes a greater need for decision-making tools that help consumers simplify how they collect, manage and understand their health care expenses. Quicken Health Expense Tracker enables users to translate the oftentimes fragmented components of their health care costs into more transparent, usable information.”

UnitedHealthcare Expands Availability of Quicken Health Expense Tracker to Nearly 700,000 Consumers

Related Reading:

Connected Care – Webcam Remote Visits Explained by UnitedHealthCare

The Ingenix Inquisition – Hearing Requested by Senator Rockefeller
Prescriptions risk score used to deny health insurance

Health Costs Push Companies to Set Targets for Workers

UnitedHealth Ingenix's acquiring AIM Healthcare Services in Tennessee
United Health Care Says Cheaper Efficient Doctors and Reducing Hospital Visits by the Elderly Would Help Reduce the Cost of Healthcare

5 comments :

  1. TMQ, I work for Intuit, the company that created Quicken Health Expense Tracker, and you're absolutely correct that we created QHET "to help the patient understand those complicated algorithms that are used to determine what you are eligible for with your plan." However, this product is not about "shifting responsibility to the patient," it's about finally arming the patient with a tool that helps them understand and make better decisions about their healthcare finances. Patients are being asked to shoulder more financial and decision making responsibility and they simply didn't have the tools...until now.
    As for the need to "learn bookeeping skills," if your readers use Quicken, TurboTax or QuickBooks, also made by Intuit, then they'll know that Intuit's claim to fame is making complex things simple for the user. We took the headache out of tax prep, the budgeting out of personal finances and the accounting out of small business accounting. Now we are making healthcare finances easy too. Go to www.quickenhealth.com and watch the demo video to see for yourself.

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  2. Thanks for commenting, but take a look at this post, we are still way off the numbers with education even with personal health records, a base that needs comprehension to enable moving up to the next level. I am familiar with Intuit products and they have been around for years and Quick Books has been the choice for small businesses for years, but now it's the consumer level where we still have many who don't even understand the basics.

    http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/08/where-are-phr-mentors-education.html

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  3. Absolutely agree. Consumer education is the first step to helping them make better healthcare decisions. Quicken Health Expense Tracker is not a PHR, but we're doing what we can to help people undestand the financial aspects of their healthcare.

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  4. Absolutely agree. Consumer education is the first step to helping them make better healthcare decisions. Quicken Health Expense Tracker is not a PHR, but we're doing what we can to help people undestand the financial aspects of their healthcare.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is the data downloaded to Quicken Health Expense Tracker protected under HIPPA regulations?

    ReplyDelete

 
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