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Vericred Closes $5.5 Million Series A Round Led by FCA Venture Partners

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Proceeds to Fund Expansion of Health and Benefits Data Platform

NEW YORK, May 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred, a healthcare data services company, today announced the closing of a $5.5 million Series A funding round led by Nashville-based FCA Venture Partners, with participation from existing and new investors. The Series A funding brings Vericred’s total funding to just under $10 Million. The company will use the capital to accelerate sales growth and product development to advance its position as the enabling data layer to the health insurance and employee benefit industry. FCA’s co-managing partner Matthew King has joined Vericred’s Board of Directors.

Technology companies are looking to build robust solutions that help individuals and businesses enroll, understand, and use their health insurance and employee benefits. The lack of a centralized data platform providing reliable, structured data had historically inhibited the building of such solutions. Vericred enables innovation by solving the data problem so that technology companies can focus their resources on creating modern user experiences. Vericred’s health insurance data platform, comprised of health plan design and rate, provider-network and formulary data, is the solution to an industry otherwise plagued by highly fragmented, rapidly changing data.

“Vericred is an infrastructure company. Our role is to enable innovation in health and benefits by delivering the data and services that all industry innovators need, but which doesn’t make sense for each to build on their own,” says Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to partner with FCA to leverage their deep domain knowledge and network. With their investment, we will have the resources necessary to scale our sales team, expand the breadth and depth of our datasets and to introduce related services to enable important new functionality.”

“Vericred’s centralized data platform is unique and highly scalable. With its combination of a strong management team and great technology, Vericred is positioning itself to power health insurance and employee benefit related applications, transactions and insights across the industry,” says Matthew King, co-managing partner at FCA Venture Partners.

Since the launch of Vericred’s first API in September 2015, the company has enjoyed 165% compound quarterly revenue growth. Clients include GetInsured, EaseCentral, Maestro Health, Decisely, Wellthie, Maxwell Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  For more information visit www.vericred.com.

About Vericred:
Vericred, a leading healthcare data services company, partners with carriers across the nation to deliver structured health insurance data to insurtech platforms that are transforming today’s healthcare industry. With a mission to drive innovation in healthcare through data, Vericred’s data solutions enable functionality, speed deployment and reduce costs for health and insurtech companies, while its modern API allows for hassle-free data delivery for insurance carriers. Learn more at www.vericred.com

About FCA Venture Partners:
FCA Venture Partners, a family of funds founded in 1997, is located in Nashville, Tennessee. FCA Venture Partners focuses on early and growth stage Healthcare IT, Digital Health and Technology companies. The fund is positioned to take advantage of the multiple opportunities provided by current disruptions in the economy and efforts by the healthcare industry to reduce costs and become more efficient in this changing marketplace. Learn more at www.claytonassociates.com/fca-venture-partners.

Health Insurance Technology with FutureTech Podcast

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**Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

Almost Here: Round-the-Corner Future Technology, a FutureTech Podcast that discusses the future technologies transforming our lives recently spent some time with Michael Levin, Vericred Co-Founder and CEO, to talk about healthcare, insurance and data.

In the podcast, they discuss today’s health insurtech landscape, the digital health insurance environment and some of the challenges that come with building tools to help consumers and businesses make better decisions about their health insurance.

“Healthcare.gov created a marketplace where individuals can select from different health insurance plans. This was revolutionary because it instilled knowledge in individuals that there is choice. Five years ago, consumers did not understand how many choices were available to them. And today, the new health insurtech industry is building tools to surface choice and help individuals and employers make better health insurance decisions.”  – Michael Levin

Click here for the full podcast to learn more about the health insurtech industry, understand new solutions that are available, and get a peek into Vericred’s future plans.

Vericred Provides Exclusive Provider-Network and Formulary Datasets to Healthcare Researchers

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New researcher initiative enables valuable insight into healthcare marketplace

NEW YORK, March 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred, a healthcare data services company, announced today that it will provide qualified non-commercial researchers across the country access to new high-value health insurance datasets, at no cost, with the goal of enabling analysis and insights into the health insurance market. This work was made possible with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF).

The newly available datasets are comprised of Vericred’s proprietary provider-network and formulary data. Vericred’s provider-network data represents hundreds of millions of plan-provider relationships with details on which doctors and facilities participate in specific networks, bringing transparency to the network component. The formulary dataset provides information on which drugs are covered by which plans in addition to their tier level and restrictions.

“The network and formulary datasets add important depth to what is currently available to researchers, providing endless potential for analysis and new understanding of how the health insurance market is evolving,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“Vericred shares the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s goal of increased transparency across all sectors of healthcare,” explains Michael Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO.  “These datasets will enable researchers to investigate aspects of health insurance that would otherwise be impractical if not impossible to do. We look forward to seeing research results that come from this initiative.”

Many analysts have already used these data, including government agencies, academic researchers, and analysts from the private sector.  Just recently, University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics performed a study using Vericred’s network data to analyze the “narrowness” of regional provider-networks. The study provided invaluable insights into geographic shifts toward narrow networks, something that might not have been possible without the data. Through this initiative, however, Vericred and RWJF hope to introduce these data resources to a wider community of researchers.

Researchers with non-commercial interests can apply for access using an online form at Vericred.com/researchers.

About Vericred:
Vericred (www.vericred.com) is a healthcare data services company whose health insurance data platform enables innovative solutions in healthcare. Its platform, comprised of plan design and rate data, provider-network data and formulary data, offers a solution to an industry plagued by highly fragmented, rapidly changing data that currently exists in non-standard and non-structured formats. Vericred aggregates data from thousands of sources, which it then normalizes, structures and delivers through a modern API. Vericred is the only company offering access to all three datasets through a single integration point. Vericred’s data solutions benefit companies looking to transform today’s healthcare industry though enhanced tools and applications that provide transparency and choice. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
For more than 40 years the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked to improve health and health care. We are working with others to build a national Culture of Health enabling everyone in America to live longer, healthier lives. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org. Follow the Foundation on Twitter at www.rwjf.org/twitter or on Facebook at www.rwjf.org/facebook.

Opportunity Awaits the Millennial-Minded Carriers – It’s all about Customer Experience

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**Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

Let’s face it, the world we live in is becoming more and more digitally focused. Technology has become the primary means to reach modern consumers. Innovation is a must for success in the future of health insurance. This is the reality facing insurance carriers today. While changes in technology present several challenges, they also create significant opportunity.

The Modern Health Insurance Consumer

According to Pew Research, millennials are now the largest generation in the U.S., with a population peak predicted for 2036. These young consumers are digitally savvy. They’re digital natives and have never known anything but the innovative digital world. Technological advancements, and the millennials’ ability to make rapid adjustments to their technology habits as innovations are introduced, are the norm. 73% of millennials make purchases directly on their mobile devices. Using social media, they look for the opinions of their peers before making purchases. And, according to a recent study cited on Entrepreneur.com, they routinely comparison shop on mobile to get the best value and shopping experience – a habit that the market is just starting to capitalize on.

The millennial generation are becoming today’s business decision makers. They’re small business owners. They’re working their way into the C-Suite. And they’re health care consumers. Thirsty for smart solutions, immediate choices and intuitive user experiences from every brand they interact with, they have extremely high standards. And who can blame them? This is the generation of Google, Amazon, Apple and Uber.

A New Industry Catering to the Healthcare Customer Experience

Purchasing health insurance may never be as easy as booking a flight on Expedia, but health insurance will follow the industry footsteps of travel, cellular and retail. Consumers demand it. And because consumers are demanding it, an entirely new industry has come into existence in the last few years: digital health, an industry composed of technology companies that are pushing today’s innovation envelope. Digital health companies range from health insurance sales and enrollment apps, to HR and benefit platforms, to health insurance utilization tools, doctor referral apps, health engagement platforms, care management websites … the list goes on and on. They’re health and insurtech platforms like Zenefits, Stride Health, bWell, ZocDoc, GluecosePath, and Zest Health, companies transforming the way health insurance is purchased and used. They’re nimble, flexible, and 100% focused on using technology to improve the customer experience – whether their customers are individuals, employers, brokers or patients. Technology is what they do, and health insurance data is what they use in their products.

Insurance Carriers, Meet Cutting-Edge Health Insurtech Companies

While large insurance companies have endless amounts of expertise and knowledge, it can be a challenge for them to stay nimble, flexible and transparent – which is what the future is demanding. How will insurance carriers respond to consumer demands for a more technically up-to-date experience? They’ll do it by leveraging the platforms of today’s digital health and insurtech companies, which have the technical expertise to build innovative experiences that attract the modern consumer. To take advantage of health insurtech platforms, carriers need “only” connect to them.

Unfortunately, it can be challenging to connect with modern insurtech platforms. The legacy technology that the carriers run on doesn’t always sync with the new capabilities being built in today’s market. It’s as if they’re two separate technology languages – and they usually are.  So how does a forward-thinking insurance carrier bridge the gap between their data (often housed in older systems) and the emerging platforms that will enable them to provide the customer experience that today’s insurance consumers demand?

Vericred has a way.

Think of Vericred as the go between, the bridge that closes the gap between carriers and today’s insurtech platforms. Vericred provides a modern-day data translation layer, a health insurance data platform (comprised of benefit design and rate, provider-network and formulary data) which allows carriers to leverage digital health companies without investing in infrastructure or technology. Insurance carriers provide Vericred access to their data. Vericred then normalizes and structures that data and operates as a single-source API, delivering it to those building the digital, consumer, employer and broker-facing platforms that are starting to take off. Inclusion in this centralized data layer will allow carriers to reach their consumers through today’s technology, without their having to be a data or tech company. Vericred is already working with some of the most prominent health insurtech platforms on the market. It’s the point solution that connects carriers with today’s digital platforms, allowing insurance companies to stay focused on health insurance

Health insurance consumers are increasingly tech savvy. They’re the digital natives who demand and expect that they’ll be able to take care of all the business of their personal and professional lives online – whether that business is booking a trip, hailing an UberX, or buying their health insurance. Opportunity awaits the millennial-minded insurance carrier that’s able to provide a modern customer experience for today’s health insurance consumers.

Vericred Adds Large Group Provider Networks to its Health Insurance Data Platform

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Offers healthcare innovators an edge as Private Exchange Markets Heat Up

NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 2016 /PRNewswire/ —  Vericred, a healthcare data services company whose health insurance data platform enables innovative solutions in healthcare, is today announcing large group provider-network data. This dataset expands the company’s already extensive individual under 65 and small group provider networks. Vericred’s provider-network data together with its plan design and rate and formulary datasets, forms the basis of its health insurance data platform. 

The large group market, which includes companies with more than 50 or 100 employees depending on the state, is shifting to multi-carrier private exchanges, which offer employees multiple plans from which to choose. The demand is growing to create an online experience that is more intuitive and employee friendly. Vericred’s large group provider-networks and previously announced formularies, enable such experiences.

Vericred’s provider-network data, which is comprised of hundreds of millions of plan-provider relationships, brings transparency to this critical health plan component.  This dataset is being used to power group disruption analysis – the ability for an employer to compare networks based on all of its employees’ doctors and facilities – to determine which carriers and networks provide the best fit.  And, Vericred’s provider-network data is being used to power provider-centric plan search, through which an employee enters their doctors and preferred facilities as part of the shopping experience to see “who’s in and who’s out” of each available plan. Finally, the company’s data powers universal provider directories so that employees do not have to leave their employee portal to search for a new doctor that participates in their plan.

“As employers rollout private exchanges and benefit administration systems, delivering a consistent, high quality user experience is critical to the success of the initiative,” says Michael Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Provider-networks along with formularies and plan design data, provide the foundation for sophisticated decision support to help employees find the right plan.  And the ability for an employee to search for a new doctor without leaving the employer’s portal is beneficial to all.”

“As we sought to build our Shop by Doc™ solution for maestroEDGE, Vericred was the clear choice for a data partner,” explains Tony Dillon, CTO for Maestro Health™. “Their data solutions are comprehensive and easy to integrate, allowing us to focus our resources on building a consistent and personalized shopping experience.”

Vericred delivers its comprehensive data solutions through a modern API that provides a single point of integration. The API Documentation can be found at http://docs.vericred.apiary.io/#. For pricing and terms of use, interested parties should contact Michael W. Levin, CEO, at mlevin@vericred.com.

About Vericred:

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is a healthcare data services company whose health insurance data platform enables innovative solutions in healthcare. Its platform, comprised of plan design and rate data, provider-network data and formulary data, offers a solution to an industry plagued by highly fragmented, rapidly changing data that currently exists in non-standard and non-structured formats. Vericred aggregates data from thousands of sources, which it then normalizes, structures and delivers through a modern API. Vericred is the only company offering access to all three datasets through a single integration point. Vericred’s data solutions benefit companies looking to transform today’s healthcare industry though enhanced tools and applications that provide transparency and choice. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Health Insurance Shopping & Innovation – Tech Zone with Paul Amadeus Lane

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**Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

Paul Amadeus Lane, host of Tech Zone on ABC News Radio (1490 AM KMET), digs into health insurance, technology and open enrollment with Michael Levin, CEO and Co-Founder of Vericred.

In this segment of the show, Paul and Michael talk about the need for choice and transparency in health plans. Michael walks listeners though some of the challenges that come when navigating open enrollment and discusses different ways that Vericred’s technology enables health tech companies to deliver a better health insurance shopping experience to both companies and consumers.

What should today’s health insurance shopping experience be?

“Shopping for health insurance should be simple. Enter your doctors, enter the drugs you take, enter any life conditions (pregnant, asthma, etc) and have recommendations delivered to you with plans that fit you and your life.” – Michael Levin

Click below to watch the full segment and hear tips on how to save this open enrollment.

The Challenge of Comparing Medication Cost and Coverage May Soon be Solved.

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**Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

As prescription drug costs continue to climb, it’s no secret that patients today are hit with more out-of-pocket costs for the drugs they use. While health organizations are slowly shifting and empowering patients to take control of their own healthcare, finding the facts about which drugs are covered under which plans, and how much you will pay, can be a time consuming nightmare. The first step in simplifying this process for consumers is to provide transparency.

Addressing the issue head on, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently kicked off their latest challenge dedicated to the coverage and cost of prescription drugs. At the same time, Vericred has just released formulary datasets for the individual under 65, small group and large group health insurance markets. You can read more details about our formulary datasets here. Working in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the team at Vericred is making our formulary API available to all Rx Cost and Coverage Challenge entrants at no cost for the purpose of the challenge.

According to Katherine Hempstead, senior advisor at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, “Access to and affordability of prescription drugs are extremely important elements of plan choice for many consumers, particularly for those who may suffer from chronic conditions.” Read Katherine’s full post from last week on The Health Care Blog. Through the Rx Cost and Coverage challenge, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is hoping to find a solution that addresses prescription drug access and affordability.

If you’re a developer and have what it takes, we urge you to learn more about the Rx Cost and Coverage Challenge. You can read more details about the background of the challenge here. This is a big opportunity to be involved in developing a potentially – make that hopefully –game-changing solution that puts knowledge at the fingertips of consumers around the nation.

First round submissions are due August 14, 2016, and the winners will be featured at the Health 2.0 Conference, not to mention $100,000 in cash awards. We wish you luck and can’t wait to see what you create!

Vericred Announces Individual and Group Health Plan Formulary Data

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NEW YORK, May 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred (www.vericred.com), a healthcare technology startup delivering data solutions to the health insurance industry, has announced the immediate availability of formulary datasets for the individual under 65, small group and large group health insurance markets.   

The datasets being made available today include formularies for all individual and small group health plans in all 50 states, on- and off-marketplace, and most large group health plans. Formularies are available through Vericred’s REST application programming interface (API), mapped at the plan level, allowing for easy integration into health insurance sales and utilization platforms. In addition to drug tiers, the API returns data on prior authorizations, step therapies and quantity limits. Later this summer, therapeutic alternatives will also be returned by the API.

“With patients bearing more out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs, the new personal health economics are compelling patients to become informed health consumers. These consumers need transparent, easy-to-use, helpful information on the price of prescription drugs and therapeutic alternatives,” said Jane Sarasohn-Kahn, health economist at THINK-Health LLC and blogger at Health Populi.

“With over sixty percent of adults taking one or more prescription drugs, there is a deep need to bring transparency to this complex coverage element,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Our formulary data enables our partners to develop solutions to help individuals and groups better shop for, and utilize, their health plans.”

Vericred is launching its formularies with software development kits (SDKs) in ten languages, facilitating the development of formulary-related features and functionality. API documentation can be found at www.docs.vericred.apiary.io. For pricing and terms of use, interested parties should contact Michael W. Levin, CEO, at mlevin@vericred.com. 

About Vericred
Vericred, Inc. is a healthcare technology company enabling the transformation of the health insurance shopping experience. Its provider-network, formulary, and plan design and rate data for the individual and small group markets form the basis of decision-support functionality that brings transparency to the health plan search and selection process. Vericred’s data are available through a REST API in formats easily ingestible into health insurance search, quoting, and sales technology platforms, including private exchanges and marketplaces. Follow Vericred on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Vericred Closes Second Seed Round of $3.1 Million

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NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred, Inc. (www.vericred.com), a healthcare technology startup delivering transparency solutions to the health insurance industry, has closed a second seed round raising $3.1 million through the sale of Series SEED II Convertible Preferred Stock to accredited investors.  

Proceeds will be used to expand the company’s data services and offerings while scaling its sales efforts.  The new round follows a Series SEED round of $1.125 million, which closed in November 2014.  Seventy-two percent of the first seed round investors participated in the second round.

“We are seeing significant traction for our provider-network data,” said Michael W. Levin, co-founder and CEO.  “The health insurance market is going through significant disruption driven by the Affordable Care Act, consumerism and technology.  Health insurance shopping experiences are being fundamentally transformed by eBrokers, consumer facing broker sales and quoting platforms, private and public health insurance marketplaces, and integrated payroll and benefit service providers.”

“Vericred is enabling this transformation through its provider-network data empowering individuals and employers to make informed health insurance purchase decisions including whether or not their doctors participate in plans,” said Mr. Levin.

Vericred’s provider-network data footprint includes networks for all under 65 individual, on and off marketplace health insurance plans, as well as about 80 percent of small group networks.  Vericred plans to complete the small group dataset, along with Medicare Advantage networks, in early 2016.  Provider-network data is mapped at the plan level, allowing for easy integration into health insurance exchanges and platforms.

Those interested in reviewing API documentation can visit www.docs.vericred.apiary.io.  For pricing and terms of use, interested parties should contact Michael W. Levin, CEO, at mlevin@vericred.com. 

About Vericred
Vericred, Inc. is a healthcare technology company enabling the transformation of the health insurance shopping experience.  Vericred’s provider-network and health insurance plan data for the individual, small group and Medicare Advantage markets form the basis of decision support functionality bringing transparency to the health plan search and selection process.  Vericred’s data is available through a REST API in formats easily ingestible into health insurance search, quoting and sales technology platforms including private exchanges and marketplaces.  Follow Vericred on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Vericred Introduces Provider-Network Data API

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Enabling provider-network transparency across the healthcare industry

NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred (www.vericred.com) has formally launched its provider-network data application programming interface (API) enabling private healthcare insurance exchanges, health insurance quoting and enrollment platforms and web-based health insurance brokers to offer decision support tools to help their users find a health plan in which their doctors participate.  

Last month, Vericred introduced PlanCompass Pro, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application for insurance brokers utilizing doctor-centric search to show which of a client’s doctors are in or out of every available plan’s network, right next to the costs and benefits of those plans. Now the same provider-network data powering PlanCompass Pro is available to power doctor-centric search on every platform where an individual or business shops for insurance, or seeks to find a new doctor. Licensing sales for the API have begun, and one prominent web-based insurance broker has already licensed Vericred’s data.

“We believe the transparency into provider networks delivered by PlanCompass Pro should be ubiquitous throughout the industry. That’s why we are making our data broadly available,” said Michael W. Levin, co-founder and CEO of Vericred. “With the increasing shift to plans with narrow networks, consumers need tools to evaluate each plan’s provider network and make informed decisions.”

A recent report from the UPenn Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics noted that in 2014, 41 percent of Silver plans offered on the marketplaces were “x-small or small, meaning that they included 25% or less of the physicians in a rating area.” In several states, more than 70 percent of Silver plans utilized these narrow networks. 

Vericred maintains complete provider-network data for individual and small group plans, on and off marketplace, in 34 states representing more than 70 percent of the U.S. population, with new states being added weekly. Vericred’s provider-network data is mapped at the plan level allowing for easy integration into health insurance exchanges and platforms. Those interested in reviewing API documentation can visit www.docs.vericred.apiary.io. For pricing and terms of use, interested parties should contact Michael W. Levin, CEO, at mlevin@vericred.com. 

About Vericred
Vericred, Inc. is a digital health startup with a mission to be the trusted source for accurate, complete and accessible healthcare provider data. Healthcare provider data is central to a variety of insurance, patient safety, risk management, compliance and regulatory functions. However, the collection and verification of this information is highly fragmented, costly and inefficient. Vericred’s solutions enable healthcare providers, facilities and insurers to improve healthcare delivery while reducing administrative burden and cost. Follow Vericred on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.