A startup technology company is seeking to shift the burden of collecting on unpaid medical debts from healthcare providers to insurance companies, likening the current process to restaurants being responsible for collecting on unpaid debts when customers pay by credit card.
The company, Ooda, wants insurance companies to be responsible for collecting on unpaid balances, usually after they have covered their portion of the patients’ healthcare bills. Ooda is working with a trio of insurance companies, Anthem, Blue Shield of California, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, testing its hypothesis. If the tests are successful, it will roll out its plan to other insurance providers.
To date, about 2,000 bills have been paid through Ooda and the company says 96% of those using the service say it was better than traditional collection methods. The company has collected more in five months than what most healthcare organizations can collect in a year, according to a published report.
The insurance companies appear willing to take on the additional burden of helping collect on unpaid bills as a means of offsetting potential issues with disgruntled patients who are confused about what portions of their healthcare procedures are covered and what are not.
“What is super clear to us is that one of the big consumer needs is to understand what they pay for and what they owe,” said Jeff Semenchuk, the chief innovation officer at Blue Shield of California. “The whole process is confusing, opaque and disconnected.”
One healthcare provider noted in the report that collection agencies could offer some resistance to this new dynamic, and that resistance may slow down any changes to the current process.
“But this kind of effort is on the right side of history,” said Stephen Klasko, the CEO of Jefferson Health. “I hope that this kind of fragmented billing will be viewed in 100 years like we think about blood-letting or leeches today.”
