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Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

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Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#31

Post by jdangu »

joering2 wrote: post #26
joering2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thanks for your comment. Perhaps I am having a bad day, but is it really necessary to thank someone for their question? Seriously, this makes me feel like I am dumb for asking a question. I understand you trying to be extra polite, but I am sure you won't start a conversation with "thank you" every time your wife, son, daughter, lover or employee ask you a question. So while many will appreciate your "politeness th…

ok then can you give me any reasonable calculation behind why this is 5cents, not 6, or 10, 15 or 1 ?

Software is priced on perceived value, not reasonable calculations.

You seem to imply that setting high prices is a dishonest practice. If you don't find enough value to justify the high cost, just move on, that might not be true for others.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#32

Post by rlucas »

joering2 wrote: post #16
kategleason wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment. We handle the connections to the insurance companies and the EDI to JSON transformation. I respect your point about 5 cents being high. We, of course, will evaluate that as time goes on. To start, you as a developer can make an app for the medical industry that checks patient's health insurance eligibility. Details you can call include: health spending accounts, deductibles remaining, coinsur…

> Thanks for your comment. Perhaps I am having a bad day, but is it really necessary to thank someone for their question? Seriously, this makes me feel like I am dumb for asking a question. I understand you trying to be extra polite, but I am sure you won't start a conversation with "thank you" every time your wife, son, daughter, lover or employee ask you a question. So while many will appreciate your "politeness th…

Terrible, shortsighted comment. You're really judging the value of an informational API on absolute price per dip??

I know of a guy who has a database for which he charges $5000 per lookup. Is that not a "reasonable price?" Well, turns out it contains contract details, including expiration and re-bidding dates, for multi $-MM corporate contracts. If you're a sales team angling for a $500k commission, paying $5k to look up a single record suddenly makes sense.

(I agree that ideally the info that Eligible is selling should be available for free, in real-time, from insurance companies. Guess what; it's not. But redirect your anger, buddy: Eligible is part of the solution, not part of the problem.)

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#33

Post by joering2 »

jdangu wrote: post #31
joering2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ok then can you give me any reasonable calculation behind why this is 5cents, not 6, or 10, 15 or 1 ?

Software is priced on perceived value, not reasonable calculations. You seem to imply that setting high prices is a dishonest practice. If you don't find enough value to justify the high cost, just move on, that might not be true for others.

no, I am implying that there must be a reason behind setting the price of your product X and not Y. Even greed is a reason, but that's why I asked that question to Kate without making any assumptions.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#34

Post by briguy »

obituary_latte wrote: post #8
kategleason wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment. We handle the connections to the insurance companies and the EDI to JSON transformation. I respect your point about 5 cents being high. We, of course, will evaluate that as time goes on. To start, you as a developer can make an app for the medical industry that checks patient's health insurance eligibility. Details you can call include: health spending accounts, deductibles remaining, coinsur…

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but this post makes it sound like you've created an efficient API to find whether or not a person can "afford" treatment. Again, maybe (hopefully) I've misunderstood. And not to be the the tree-hugging idealist of the post, but as a fellow human, how does this make life better for the rest of us? Sorry if I seem confrontational about the whole thing; progress usually is a good thing. That…

API's and services like this are Key in making it so that more people will be able to afford medical care. Solving the current cluster F* of paperwork and time involved in establishing eligibility is one of the lowest hanging fruits in cutting medical costs (....NOTE: As opposed to more complicated cost cutting concepts such as preventative care) A typical Doctors office of 2 or 3 practitioners may have 2 or 3 or more support people spending their day faxing back EOB's to insurance companies, etc. Those dollars directly affect the cost of Health Care. This is Great.....X12 is arcane, good riddance. There are actually some insurance clearinghouses that will pay you to use them (if you have high enough volume) as they are paid by the insurance companies and/or through government incentive programs.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#36

Post by gsiener »

kategleason wrote: post #28
jasonkolb wrote: post #25

I wish the raw data was available (is it, somewhere?). I'd love to do some statistical analysis on this and get some real insight about how different insurance companies treat claims.

absolutely. I'll send you over as much raw X12, with removed patient info of course, as you want! Please email support@eligibleapi.com

Wow -- pleasantly surprised to see that response. Very cool to see you sharing data.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#37

Post by thowar2 »

kategleason wrote: post #5
technotony wrote: post #3

Anything involving health data is interesting and has the potential to improve lives, however there isn't enough information on the landing page here to indicate what this data is or why I might want to use it. Could do with a better landing page.

Great feedback, we will do that and include samples from some companies currently using the API.

Maybe also put up a comparison with your competitors and/or highlight the features that make you a better choice.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#39

Post by obituary_latte »

briguy wrote: post #34
obituary_latte wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but this post makes it sound like you've created an efficient API to find whether or not a person can "afford" treatment. Again, maybe (hopefully) I've misunderstood. And not to be the the tree-hugging idealist of the post, but as a fellow human, how does this make life better for the rest of us? Sorry if I seem confrontational about the whole thing; progress usually is a good thing. That…

API's and services like this are Key in making it so that more people will be able to afford medical care. Solving the current cluster F * of paperwork and time involved in establishing eligibility is one of the lowest hanging fruits in cutting medical costs (....NOTE: As opposed to more complicated cost cutting concepts such as preventative care) A typical Doctors office of 2 or 3 practitioners may have 2 or 3 or mo…

So if I'm understanding correctly, the lowest hanging fruit to providing medical care to those in need is...paperwork?

Sounds like we're working on a band-aide, not a solution.

Again, progress is progress. I guess I wonder whether or not these efforts could be focused on the root. I'm probably sounding like a pretentious douche with all the answers...it's not intentional. On a very base level, I cant help but wonder what all this potential could achieve if the focus weren't money. As I understand it, the benefits you proclaim would be a side effect of a successful (read: profitable) implementation.

As always, I might be misunderstanding.

Re: Show HN: Eligible API for 700+ Health Insurance Companies

#40

Post by kategleason »

colinsidoti wrote: post #38

My father's a chiropractor and I just asked him about this. Apparently checking insurance eligibility is a "pain in the ass" and involves a phone call with wait times. I'm excited to see if I can quickly put something together for him.

we'd love that. email me k@eligibleapi.com
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