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Saving real money with HealthVault

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Quick and fun anecdote ... I was talking to the HealthVault team leads this morning, working through strategy for the upcoming fiscal year. Our test lead Dan mentioned in passing that HealthVault had saved him $575 the other day. Pretty cool, so I asked him to send me the details:

I visited the dentist 4 times last year. On my last visit in October/November, I had a crown put in place. In March, I got mail from my dentist saying that I owed them $575. I ended up going in and they said that Premera had declined a payment for my last visit because I had reached my $1500 coverage limit. I said that this wasn't possible and that there had to be a mistake, but the dentist reaffirmed that my coverage limit had been reached.

Now the fun part!

I logged in to Vivacity Spending Scout, filtered on CY 2010 and saw that only $741 of dental coverage had been claimed. I showed this to my dentist and stated that this information was coming *directly from Premera* and told them to call the insurance company to straighten it out. They called me back later that day and informed me that they (the dentist's office) had made a mistake and that the insurance company was fully covering the $575 charge.

An often-overlooked thing about HealthVault is that we can handle all kinds of data --- including EOB information that is a fantastic resource as people are asked to contribute more to their healthcare in terms of high deductibles and copays. Since Dan had hooked up Premera to send claims to HealthVault automatically, he had full access to the primary source data and was able to make sure he got the full benefits he was entitled to.

Below is the payout distribution from my now-infamous scooter injury. Wicked!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2011
    $16,748 for an office visit? ...might wanna check that one out too.

  • Anonymous
    April 23, 2011
    Vince, that's actually a category rollup --- with MANY, MANY office visits wrapped into it. I had quite the ride with my knee. The good news is, Spring is here so Lara is letting me ride the scooter again. :)