Following The Money Trail in Health Care Costs – CIVHC Ideas for Hack4Colorado

With the recent TIME magazine article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” articulating how we now spend 20% of GDP on healthcare, it’s recommended we follow the money rather than policy. Maybe that is why Medicare just released Hospital Charge Data for the first time. This gives the charged and reimbursed rates from every Medicare participating hospital across the country (check it out: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html) As a Coloradan, I recommend you get to know CIVHC if you are interested in price transparency.

Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) Colorado has a Triple Aim - better health, better care and lower costs with the ultimate goal of creating an efficient, high-quality and transparent health care system. Focus areas include data transparency, payment reform, and health care delivery redesign. The organization was formed from a White House directive. Below are ideas on apps which may be built through a hackathon like Hack4Colorado. Don’t wait to make a difference in health care price transparency – register for www.hack4colorado.com May 31^st-June 2^nd at Galvanize, in collaboration with the National Day of Civic Hacking today! Keep the conversation going on Twitter #hack4colorado.

1. A widget/app like a public health tracker for smartphones with public health alerts that are tailored to the consumer based on "subscriber type" (consumer, family, provider, local health dept) that would give different information to the different levels of subscribers relating to relevant public health information. For example, if there's a ...measles outbreak in a local middle school - the alert would be sent to families, local public health, school districts, etc. with different information/action items being sent to each subscriber. It would geo-tag/locate you based on where you are. So if you're traveling say, somewhere other than where you live, and you don't know that there was a chemical spill in a park somewhere that you should avoid, when the geo-tag locates where you are it'll send you the relevant public health alert so you are aware of your current environment. It could pull in CDC information, local data, have a user friendly platform as a full app but also be added as a widget on a mobile device, and auto-refreshes/syncs at given intervals.
2. Mobile app that combines current technology for fitness tracking with self-reported patient data and physician records to give patients a complete picture of their health and progress toward mental and physical health goals they set themselves. While ideally suited for high-risk patients with co-occurring chronic disease and behavioral health issues, the app would be appealing to anyone who’s looking for ways to easily manage their health.

• Track and show in graph form self-reported progress toward mental health goals set by the patient using Patient Health Questionnaire (e.g., number of days feeling down, depressed or hopeless; trouble falling asleep; etc.)
• Weight automatically fed to phone from bathroom scale; tracks in graph form
• Food diary (data entered by patient) that automatically calculates calories, sugars and fats
• Folds in vitals from most recent physician visit (blood pressure, etc.)
• Includes “Body Bugg”-type wearable device that tracks steps taken/miles walked/calories burned
• Download Rx data from clinicians with alarm reminders about when to take meds (e.g., first thing in the a.m. , with a meal, at bedtime), flags potential reactions between Rxs written by different clinicians, reactions with supplements, etc.
•  Consumers need a one-stop shop to identify locations and costs of public health related services like flu clinics. I envision an app that would allow you to type in your zip code or use your current location to find flu clinics nearby and provide directions and contact information. You could also show prices for the flu shots and whether they accept insurance or not, and what specific types. This could be expanded to show other public health services like pneumonia vaccines and shingles vaccines.
•  It’s difficult to keep your own medical record information with you from year to year if you’re changing insurance companies and providers. Examples include cholesterol results, weight, BP, etc. It would be great if there could be an application on smartphones that would allow you to enter this information from year to year and also set yourself up reminders to visit your doctor when annual exams, etc. are due.
• Cost of medications depending on their health plan isn’t apparent to consumers when they are visiting their doctors and getting prescribed various medications. An app that would show cost of medications depending on insurance (or lack of insurance) coverage, and potential options (generics, etc.) that are just as effective and cost less would be helpful for patients to access on their phones when visiting their doctor. This would allow them to ask about these alternatives immediately rather than getting sticker shock at the pharmacy and feeling rather stuck at that point. The APCD data could be a source for this cost information.
• The App would serve as a crowd-sourcing platform for individuals to ask health-related questions of various health professionals. The health professionals would include representatives of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, insurance, and behavioral health. The individual could enter their question; the question would then be routed through a central point that would determine the best available responder to the question. Upon receiving the question, the health professional answers to the best of their abilities and possibly provides relevant resources. The individual receives a response to their question. The health professionals can be from a very large pool and be compensated a small amount for each question they answer. The answering would take place on their personal time.