Steve Case's New Healthcare Company Not So Revolutionary
from the you've-got-ulcers dept
Regardless of one's political persuasion, most people can agree that the US healthcare system is in serious need of reform. Just the fact that costs continue to spiral higher each year is a sign that the system has problems. So it was intriguing to read, nearly two years ago, that AOL founder Steve Case had his sights set on the healthcare industry. For all of AOL's faults, there's no denying that it played a significant role in the history of the internet, and it seemed the healthcare industry could use someone with Steve Case's penchant for ambitious projects. As it was originally conceived, Case's new company, audaciously named Revolution Health, promised to greatly simplify the health care process by helping people manage their information, navigate the world of insurance and pick their providers. It even planned to get involved directly with healthcare delivery through the use of ultra-cheap clinics that performed rudimentary health services. Fast forward two years, and Revolution Health has finally opened its doors. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the "revolution" part. The company looks like it's trying to be drkoop.com 2.0. The site has assembled information about various diseases (nothing revolutionary there), as well as symptom calculators, which plenty of other sites have, but which don't work all that well. Other than that, the site has some blogs and social networking features, as well as a repository to store your medical records, though it's not clear how that's any different to any other online file storage service. It's likely that the company will continue to roll out more features and services going forward, but it's hard to imagine that this company will have the desired impact. At this point, the industry seems to have too many systemic issues to be solved by one company, let alone a consumer-oriented website.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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site's not bad
Hopefully we won't have trial CD-ROMs from Case's new venture falling on the kitchen floor when we empty our purchases from the drug store.
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Steve had his success but it outgrew his capabilities. Now he's going to solve our health care crisis? I don't think so.
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Insurance Companies are the Good Guys
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Bad Ideas
Trust me sound decision making isn't this guys strong suit in the least!!!
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Insurance companies...
And they pass the saving on to...oh...wait...nevermind.
Billions of dollars per year...paying for expensive executives and salesmen in bad suits. Wow. I feel healthier already!
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Category killer?
www.healthline.com
www.medhelp.org (for almost 13 years now btw)
www.everydayhealth.com
www.healthboards.com
And, clearly WebMD is the far leader in the space. This also doesn't count the hospitals like Mayo that have their own tools and services.
Maybe if they really do get into the health insurance and management stuff they will live up to the name, but for now, they are just a copycat of sites that have been around for a bit.
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records?
How exactly do I get records to store on the site? At one doctor, the records are all scrawl-covered papersin a folder and at the other, 100% paperless (with even paperless prescriptions transmitted to my pharmacy), but all in the computer system at the doctor's office.
Neither offers me real access. And besides why would I want my records on the Internet, given the crappy security records of many companies?
Buncha jibber-jabber, if you ask me.
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