MyMedicalShopper, Consumer Healthcare Price Transparency Platform, Now Available in All 50 States

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Nov. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MyMedicalShopper, a healthcare price transparency solution that enables patient consumerism, is now available in all 50 U.S. states.

"We are excited to make MyMedicalShopper available to consumers across the country, only a few short years after its initial introduction in New Hampshire," said Mark Galvin, President and CEO of MMS Analytics, Inc., the creator of MyMedicalShopper. "With the growth of and focus on healthcare consumerism to help control healthcare costs, MyMedicalShopper is already enabling hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide to instantly find prices for more than 10,000 medical procedures, alongside quality and location information as well," Galvin said.

Galvin said that the power of MyMedicalShopper is rooted in more than 3.4 billion actual, post-adjudicated medical claims, coupled with cutting-edge integrations with the software powering health insurance plans, third-party administrators, and brokers. Galvin said these tight integrations with existing systems enable streamlined enrollment of employers and their employees onto the MyMedicalShopper platform and provide the most personalized and accurate view of member health benefits available in the U.S. employee benefits market. In addition, Galvin said his company has employed the latest in bank-level encryption to ensure the privacy and security of their data and any personal health information shared by their users.

"At a time when healthcare is nearing 20% of U.S. GDP with annual cost increases of more than 4%, exceeding and adding to the overall rate of inflation, the environment is ripe for healthcare consumerism and shopping," Galvin added. "Employers and their employees are embracing informed and empowered healthcare consumerism by adopting benefit programs that incentivize and recognize market-driven consumerism," Galvin added.

Galvin noted the 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits Survey issued in early October that found that employee premiums increased 3% from 2017–2018 "comparable to the rise in worker's wages (2.6%) and inflation (2.5%) during the same period. Over time, the increases continue to outpace wages and inflation," the report said. The survey also "finds the burden of deductibles on workers continuing to climb over time in two ways: a growing share of covered workers face a general annual deductible, and the average deductible is rising."

For employer groups adopting MyMedicalShopper's services, this new technology is a significant step toward an improved health benefits environment for their employees as they seek to manage the ever-rising cost of a family budget.

American Benefits Group (ABG), a leading national benefits service and solution provider headquartered in Northampton, MA, recently partnered with MyMedicalShopper to help their employer clients and their employees control their healthcare spending. This new offering represents a significant step towards an improved health benefits environment for ABG's clients.

As one of the leading national providers of pre-tax consumer-directed account-based plans—flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and commuter benefits—ABG is uniquely positioned to drive positive change into the healthcare industry.

Robert Cummings, CEO and founder of American Benefits Group, said, "We embraced MyMedicalShopper for its ability to enable our clients and their employees to actively participate in their healthcare decision-making." Cummings added, "The best health benefits brokers and consultants are looking for solutions to help their clients control costs. Since we're already providing these consumer-directed accounts to employers reacting to rising healthcare costs, it made perfect sense for us to integrate the MyMedicalShopper solution into our offerings. Giving consumers control over their healthcare spending is critical, and we're excited about the savings potential that MyMedicalShopper can help our clients realize."

MyMedicalShopper is available through benefit brokers and consultants serving both the fully insured and self-funded employer markets.

MyMedicalShopper provides a comprehensive platform for employers who want to take control of their healthcare costs and empower their employees with a tool that makes shopping for medical care as easy as a Google search.

MyMedicalRewards™ provides a dynamic HRA or HSA funding mechanism that drives good consumer behavior even when employees are spending employer dollars. It combines reference-pricing models with the MyMedicalShopper shopping experience to reward employees for choosing low-cost, high-quality medical care, thus reducing medical claims.

MyMedicalShopper's Employer Dashboard provides CEOs, CFOs, and HR leadership with direct visibility into their group's claims experience, engagement with MMS programs, and realization of savings. MyMedicalMetrics™ is an enhanced feature of this dashboard—a robust claims analytics package that shows employers exactly how their employees are victimized by hidden pricing, inadvertently driving up their own costs and overall claims experience for the group. Employers can use this new information to team up with their employees, identify specific savings opportunities, and build targeted campaigns that drive meaningful behavior change and claims reduction for their groups.

About MyMedicalShopper (http://www.MyMedicalShopper.com)
MMS Analytics, Inc. dba MyMedicalShopper™ is a big data company on a mission to revolutionize healthcare. The founders started the company out of the need to bring transparency to consumers and the companies who provide healthcare benefits to their employees—providing the leverage needed to make solid decisions on their healthcare and improve their quality of life. Consumers previously unaware of price variations in procedures and testing can utilize real-time health insurance plan pricing information that makes it possible to choose care based on price, quality, and convenience. Experts document that as much as $1 trillion could be slashed annually from the cost of healthcare in the U.S. MyMedicalShopper aims to transform the healthcare industry into a fair market for consumers.

SOURCE MyMedicalShopper