Momentum for price transparency continues
March 01, 2014
At DocSpot, our mission is to connect people with the right health care by helping them navigate publicly available information. We believe the first step of that mission is to help connect people with an appropriate medical provider, and we look forward to helping people navigate other aspects of their care as the opportunities arise. We are just at the start of that mission, so we hope you will come back often to see how things are developing.
An underlying philosophy of our work is that right care means different things to different people. We also recognize that doctors are multidimensional people. So, instead of trying to determine which doctors are "better" than others, we offer a variety of filter options that individuals can apply to more quickly discover providers that fit their needs.
March 01, 2014
The trend towards price transparency in health care has been afoot for many years now, and it still might be many more years before we see anything like other industries. As another encouraging sign of this continuing trend, NPR recently posted a story about how Massachusetts now requires health care providers to disclose costs of procedures to prospective patients. The article chronicles the travails of an expectant mother trying to figure out how much labor and delivery would cost at nearby hospitals. Unfortunately, there's no requirement for providers to disseminate this information in a form that is easily interpreted by computers so that websites can incorporate the data to help patients shop. Instead, patients need to resort to the phone, navigating switchboards and voicemail systems. Even worse? Some providers are not complying with the law.
Isn't the whole idea of having to call around to find prices reminiscent of a much older era? Didn't price comparison websites for travel pop up in the nineties? For a sector that consumes about a sixth of the nation's GDP, one might hope for a more transparent marketplace. Maybe some year.
February 22, 2014
For a while, we've been noticing some search queries for which we didn't return results. Sometimes, people were searching for a concept that was too specific, and sometimes, people were searching in areas where we didn't have as detailed coverage. To help address this, we've released a new feature that suggests related topics.
For example, if you were to search for providers in Sunnyvale, CA who have listed "Mycosis Fungoides" as a clinical interest, you would get back four results, but you'd also see a link to search for Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (mycosis fungoides is a type of cutaneous t-cell lymphoma). By trying out the suggested link, you might find other providers that are in the general ballpark of what you're looking for.
February 13, 2014
This site will be taken offline tonight (February 13, 2014, after 9 PM PST). Hopefully, the site will be back up within a couple of hours.
For those curious, we'll be changing colocation facilities.
Update: the move was successful.
February 07, 2014
Those of you who visit regularly might have noticed that the search form on the front page has changed. We tried to make the form slightly more compact by merging the label of the search boxes into the same line as the search boxes themselves. We also alphabetized the popular specialties below the search boxes (they used to be listed roughly in order of popularity).
On the profile page, we also added buttons to make it easier to share a profile on popular social media channels, or via e-mail.
As always, we're open to hearing how we can improve the user interface -- feel free to let us know any thoughts you have.
February 02, 2014
An interesting survey of nearly 2,000 adults show that younger Americans are more likely to seek and use health care quality and cost information than older Americans. Over half of the surveyed who are between 25 and 34 years old looked for quality ratings, while only 23% of those surveyed who were between 55 and 64 years old did the same. The younger respondents were also more likely to ask about cost.
Fortunately, more information is becoming available. Medicare announced that they will begin releasing some information about individual providers. Likewise, South Carolina will begin posting hospital pricing information online. Hopefully, more and more information will become available so that consumers can make better decisions about their medical care.