WHAT A MESS! For those who don’t know it, the US health-care system is completely different from Israel’s. Whereas everyone in Israel is covered by one health fund or another, in the US there are no health funds – everything is based on private insurance companies. A patient who goes to a doctor for a consultation or for treatment does not pay at that time. The doctor sends the bill to the patient and to the insurance company the patient is covered by, which then checks the bill and, according to the policy, decides how much it will cover and how much the patient needs to pay.The insurance company then sends the letter to the patient. This chain of letters continues for weeks or even months after the first doctor’s visit. Each patient has separate insurance policies for different treatments (for example, teeth and eyes); as a result, most Americans have a hard time making sense out of all this bureaucratic mess.“These letters look like the letters sent by insurance companies in Israel – lots of unclear numbers,” says Rabinovich, Simplee’s vice president of operations. “The average American takes these letters and stuffs them under the rest of their mail. All of this causes Americans tremendous frustration, and our product is intended to create a different experience for these same insured patients.”Simplee offers one website, to which the user can attach all of his heath-insurance bills and then organize them. The interface and the design are simple. The site also translates the complicated insurance language into more understandable terms, as well as sending warning notices.Rabinovich says Simplee works with 12 of the largest health-insurance companies in the US, and it deals with more than 200,000 different doctor visits. Although the product is tailored to the US market because of the complexity of the US health-care system, it still has great potential, as 66 percent of Americans have health insurance, he says.One of the most interesting features of the Simplee product is the notification of unnecessary charges made by insurance companies.“Some Americans don’t know that if they visit a doctor who does not have an agreement with their insurance company, they pay more,” Rabinovich says. “So the system warns them that if they go to this doctor again, they will pay heavily, since he is not in their arrangement.”
Simplee keeps tabs on US health-care expenses
Website allows user to organize health-insurance bills, notifies customers of unnecessary charges made by companies.
WHAT A MESS! For those who don’t know it, the US health-care system is completely different from Israel’s. Whereas everyone in Israel is covered by one health fund or another, in the US there are no health funds – everything is based on private insurance companies. A patient who goes to a doctor for a consultation or for treatment does not pay at that time. The doctor sends the bill to the patient and to the insurance company the patient is covered by, which then checks the bill and, according to the policy, decides how much it will cover and how much the patient needs to pay.The insurance company then sends the letter to the patient. This chain of letters continues for weeks or even months after the first doctor’s visit. Each patient has separate insurance policies for different treatments (for example, teeth and eyes); as a result, most Americans have a hard time making sense out of all this bureaucratic mess.“These letters look like the letters sent by insurance companies in Israel – lots of unclear numbers,” says Rabinovich, Simplee’s vice president of operations. “The average American takes these letters and stuffs them under the rest of their mail. All of this causes Americans tremendous frustration, and our product is intended to create a different experience for these same insured patients.”Simplee offers one website, to which the user can attach all of his heath-insurance bills and then organize them. The interface and the design are simple. The site also translates the complicated insurance language into more understandable terms, as well as sending warning notices.Rabinovich says Simplee works with 12 of the largest health-insurance companies in the US, and it deals with more than 200,000 different doctor visits. Although the product is tailored to the US market because of the complexity of the US health-care system, it still has great potential, as 66 percent of Americans have health insurance, he says.One of the most interesting features of the Simplee product is the notification of unnecessary charges made by insurance companies.“Some Americans don’t know that if they visit a doctor who does not have an agreement with their insurance company, they pay more,” Rabinovich says. “So the system warns them that if they go to this doctor again, they will pay heavily, since he is not in their arrangement.”