Last year, I was working at one of the largest patient social network sites as the Chief Marketing Officer, thinking about how little we’d done in the past three decades to help people afford healthcare.  The discussion forums were filled with patients and families looking for ways to raise money to cover medical expenses so they could pay for the care their family needed.  It wasn’t a new story, but rather a very old one.

When my job ended due to a merger, I knew it was time to take my knowledge of the industry and do something to help reduce the burden of healthcare costs.  It sounds grandiose, but I felt it was my responsibility to do something.  Over the years of working in hospitals, pharmaceutical, and health insurance as well as at other health-related companies I had learned a few tips about controlling health expenses.

I started working in healthcare back in the 1980’s at one of the first multi-hospital systems and learned that healthcare is a big business even for non-profit healthcare.  Even then our government was grappling with rising costs and instituted diagnosis related groups (DRGs) pricing as a way to control health costs.  We then herded people into managed care and health maintenance organizations.  And when that didn’t work we created new forms of health insurance called consumer-directed high deductible plans. If you work for a Fortune 500 company or are self-employed you’re probably very familiar with HSA’s. Finally, we just blamed doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies for the mess.  And they blamed us.

I don’t want to build a company based on blame.  There’s plenty to go around, and it hasn’t solved anything for anyone.  What I want to do is rally my fellow healthcare consumers to become more demanding shoppers.  If more than 40mm people didn’t fill prescriptions last year because of cost, you can rest assured pharmaceutical companies noticed.  I want to utilize my understanding of how healthcare companies work and manage their businesses, to motivate them to become better partners in care to patients.  President Obama and Congress will have to tackle insurance, but together we can begin to chip away at the burden of out-of-pocket costs each of us is facing.

There’s a lot to be done to build this membership website for people with ongoing health conditions and too many out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. We’re working fast and furiously to create a solution for you – a place to find savings, information, comfort and empowerment.

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