Alegent Wins Medseekˇ¦s Second Annual ehealth Award
Alegent honored for its revolutionary online consumer healthcare cost estimator tool
/Arizona News Articles/ - SCOTTSDALE, AZ, May 10, 2008 - MEDSEEK, a leading provider of enterprise eHealth solutions that connect information and people for better patient care and community advocacy, announced today that Alegent Health won MEDSEEKˇ¦s second annual eHealth Award for outstanding performance in utilizing eHealth web technologies to improve consumer-directed care. The award was presented to Jackie Goss, operations director for e-health innovation and development at Alegent, during MEDSEEKˇ¦s 8th Annual eHealth Client Congress in Memphis, Tenn on May 5, 2008.
MEDSEEK recognizes Alegent for its unique, patent-pending, online healthcare cost estimator tool, which integrates Siemensˇ¦ eligibility checking with a custom-designed cost calculator to determine out-of-pocket cost estimates for nearly 500 hospital inpatient and outpatient procedures including hospital diagnostics (CT, lab, MRI, mammography, radiology, X-ray), therapy services, select physician clinic procedures, and cosmetic procedures. All estimates are personalized based on the consumerˇ¦s financial situation or reflect their individual health plan's negotiated contract rates with Alegent Health.
Alegentˇ¦s MyHealth initiative with MEDSEEK is just one part of the organizationˇ¦s strategic plan, the ˇ§Quality Revolutionˇ¨, which Wayne Sensor, Alegentˇ¦s CEO launched in March 2005 when he and physician leaders joined together in a call for change with four cornerstones:
„« An atmosphere of innovation
„« Transparency in healthcare
„« Personal accountability for health and health care
„« Unifying objective clinical quality
Alegent began public reporting of quality scores and established a corporate blog and online discussion forum to invite employee input. In three years, Alegentˇ¦s employees embraced consumerism; with 92 percent of its employees enrolled in consumer directed plans.
ˇ§Alegent Health's commitment to bring transparency to healthcare quality and costs has resulted in this innovative tool that empowers consumers to make more informed care decisions,ˇ¨ said Peter Kuhn, president of MEDSEEK. ˇ§We applaud Wayne Sensor and Alegent Health on their successful launch and implementation of this ˇ§first-of-a-kindˇ¨ price transparency initiative, which hospitals nationwide are already seeking to replicate. Wayne Sensor is recognized locally and nationally for his ability to turn his vision of patient empowerment into reality.ˇ¨
The ˇ§My Costˇ¨ tool will also supply uninsured consumers with a list of self-pay prices for frequently purchased services, in addition to information on financial assistance programs for cost-prohibitive services. Consumers have sought approximately 37,000 cost estimates using the ˇ§My Costˇ¨ tool, which can be securely accessed via Alegent.com.
MEDSEEKˇ¦s Client Congress will also serve as a forum to enable hospitals across the country to gain firsthand experience with the ˇ§My Costˇ¨ estimator tool. Over 30 marketing executives from 20 hospitals and health systems across the country are scheduled to participate in ˇ§My Costˇ¨ estimator workshops.
According to Wayne Senor, CEO of Alegent, ˇ§It is an honor to be recognized with MEDSEEKˇ¦s eHealth award. We value our partnership with MEDSEEK to drive transparency among health care providers, resulting in an environment that empowers consumers to make quality health care decisions by the use of meaningful tools and information. We look forward to help providers begin or progress along their journey to cost and quality transparency by sharing experiences about innovative new access points and the implementation of consumer-driven health plans within the workforce.ˇ¨
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