November 12, 2022
ZeaHealth Impacting Healthcare Price Transparency Ecosystem
Americans have long been deprived of actual healthcare costs. According to KFF, the unknown and high cost of healthcare is a […]
November 4, 2022
Employers Role in Healthcare Price Transparency Ecosystem
As of 2021, half of the US population has health coverage through employment which is 54.3%. While 35% have coverage from government […]
October 6, 2022
Price Transparency Ecosystem: Stakeholders’ significant role in transforming the healthcare landscape.
The US healthcare system is complex, with more confusion and darkness over the prices of healthcare services. However, with the […]
September 22, 2022
Price Transparency in Healthcare – Guide To Compliance Requirements
This Tuesday, I had the pleasure of presenting the webinar sponsored by the Southern Medical Association (SMA) representing 17 states. […]
January 27, 2022
The Story behind ZeaMed: #ZeaVolution
The idea and vision that inspired me to initiate ZeaMed and the purpose that keeps me moving. Read the fascinating story behind ZeaMed here.
People often ask me about my main idea and vision behind Zeamed health. They also ask about the purpose or goal of establishing Zeamed health.
So, to create the beginning of what will hopefully be a transparent network of American healthcare prices. We laid the foundation of Zeamed health.
I have been actively researching the Hospital Price Transparency topic for the past years. So, it is close to my heart. and I wanted to help hospitals and consumers as other stakeholders to understand and be aware of the CMS Price Transparency rule so that they can benefit from the rule brought by the government.
Beginning of the Journey
The most soul-destroying thing in America is the huge prices healthcare prices.
- 67% of bankrupts in America happen due to healthcare costs.
- 1 of 5 people is afraid to visit hospitals or go for care as they are not aware of the cost. Secondly, they cannot afford to spend such huge prices for cost.
To help avoid such situations and change the present American healthcare scenario, on June 24, 2019, the President signed an executive order to bring price transparency in American healthcare and put patients first. The health & human services and CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) have taken up.
What is CMS Price Transparency Rule, and What is its primary purpose?
According to the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule, hospitals must provide the costs of the healthcare services they provide. Those who fail to comply will be penalized.
So for the betterment of consumers and to help hospitals comply with the CMS Price Transparency rule, we lay the foundation of Zeamed health.
The mandate and idea behind Zeamed health were to integrate technology in healthcare to make patients informed and empowered.
The primary benefit of CMS price transparency is the information regarding the cost. Secondly, Consumers can compare healthcare services costs by different providers.
Zeamed health
Zeamed health is our health-tech startup that is changing the way Americans find and pay for health care. It works on the mission to make healthcare prices transparent and make American healthcare services affordable and accessible for all.
ZeaMed health using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, has created software for CMS hospital Price transparency. We have created a software called ZeaTool- it is the hospital price transparency tool.
The tool enables hospitals to enlist the prices of their shoppable healthcare services right on their hospital website. Using ZeaTool, hospitals can comply with the CMS Price Transparency rule in a few clicks.
Challenges We Faced
Statistics say, only 9% of the U.S. population is aware of the CMS Price Transparency Rule. Unless the rule is communicated to the consumers, they cannot advantage of the rule.
Lack of Knowledge: Another big barrier is that hospitals seem to have not understood the CMS guidelines. Many hospitals did not want to provide transparent, shoppable prices. So, to convince hospitals to comply with the rule and provide their shoppable services data was quite time-consuming and daunting.
Gather Data: Hospitals are lagging in providing the transparent prices data of their healthcare services in the required manner. It is a tough challenge to gather the data from various sources like billing systems and chargemaster, collect all the data and put it in the CMS mandating format.
Fear of Price Disclosure: Hospitals do not want to disclose their prices data to competitors.
Spread Awareness: Educate Americans about the CMS Price Transparency rule and benefit from it. We believe nobody should be left behind for care. Our goal is to make healthcare prices affordable and accessible for all.
” Nobody should be left behind for care. Americans have the right to know the cost of healthcare before they recieve it.”
Success and Achievements
After consistent efforts and teamwork, we have created a full-stack solution to help healthcare prices become transparent and services accessible and affordable for consumers. We reached out and have accumulated the data from over 5,000 U.S. hospitals for their healthcare prices.
Today, using our ZeaTool, we have the accurate prices and data of 300 demanding shoppable healthcare products on our system.
ZeaStar Certificate: We introduced ZeaStar Certificates to appreciate the hospitals that comply with the CMS rule and encourage more hospitals and healthcare services providers to join the revolution. The certificate recognizes, appreciates, and shows gratitude for hospitals to follow the CMS Price Transparency rule.
ZeaPledge: ZeaPledge asks for the contribution of people towards CMS compliance. The people pledge to ask for the prices of healthcare services to bring price transparency and challenge others to take the pledge.
Bidding Algorithm: We have also built a proprietary bidding algorithm where providers can bid their best prices. The consumers can choose the provider with the lowest prices based on their location, cost, quality, date, and time.
Additionally, ZeaMed will provide value-added services to the providers. For example, if consumers are looking for a particular service in a particular location, CEOs of healthcare facilities can determine the kind of services to add.
Hopefully, we will achieve much more success in making hospitals compliant with the CMS Price Transparency Rule and work more for the betterment of Americans.