Category: Press Releases

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.

Ritter Insurance Marketing selected as PlanCompass Pro launch partner

NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — A new online service designed to dramatically improve health insurance agent and broker quoting productivity by helping them to quickly and easily identify health plans in which their clients’ doctors participate, is being introduced by Vericred, Inc. (www.vericred.com).

PlanCompass Pro is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application utilizing doctor-centric search to show which of a client’s doctors are in and out of every available plan’s network (on and off marketplace), right next to the costs and benefits of those plans. PlanCompass Pro helps a broker accomplish in minutes what would otherwise take hours of searching doctor directories and compiling information. It estimates subsidies, allows for plan filtering and sorting and generates side-by-side plan comparisons, including doctor participation, which can then be printed and/or saved as a PDF for easy e-mailing to a client.

According to a 2015 survey of Health Insurance Marketplace Assister Programs and Brokers by the Kaiser Family Foundation, since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation 83 percent of brokers are spending more time on each policy while 80 percent report earning less revenue per policy. The same report goes on to say that more than half of individuals seeking post-enrollment help were doing so because their provider was not in-network or they felt they picked the wrong plan. 

“In an increasingly complex health insurance environment where insurance carriers are offering more health plans, but fewer with out-of-network coverage, and where provider networks are getting narrower and narrower, brokers, agents, assisters and navigators, and their clients, are ill-served by today’s decision support tools,” said Michael W. Levin, co-founder and CEO of Vericred. “PlanCompass Pro substantially boosts productivity while helping identify the best plan for their clients, including those with their client’s doctors.”

Vericred is partnering with Ritter Insurance Marketing (www.ritterim.com), a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based, national insurance field marketing organization specializing in senior life and health insurance products. Ritter Insurance Marketing will market PlanCompass Pro to more than 100,000 health insurance agents, brokers, navigators and assisters across the country.

“PlanCompass Pro is absolutely a must-have product for agents who value their time and who want to make the best plan recommendations. Given the compressed enrollment timeframes, it’s more important than ever for agents, brokers and navigators to equip themselves with best-in-class decision tools,” said Craig Ritter, CEO of Ritter Insurance Marketing. “Determining which plans a client’s doctors participate in has been a time-consuming effort that limits the productivity of agents. PlanCompass Pro makes it easy for agents to do their jobs so they can help more clients navigate the ACA with better quality outcomes.”

PlanCompass Pro is an extension of Vericred’s free PlanCompass consumer service launched late in 2014 and which earned Vericred a slot as a finalist in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation / U.S. Health and Human Services Provider Network Challenge.

PlanCompass Pro subscriptions start at just $24.99 per month per agent for unlimited individual quotes and one small group quote per month. Additional subscription levels are available based on higher monthly small group volumes. PlanCompass Pro is live in 14 states, representing 42 percent of the U.S. population and is expected to be available in all 50 states by the beginning of open enrollment. The launch states include California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Georgia and New Hampshire.

Brokers and agents seeking more information on PlanCompass Pro or to sign-up for the service should go to www.plancompasspro.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.

About Ritter Insurance Marketing
Ritter Insurance Marketing is a national Field Marketing Organization for Insurance Products and sales technology including an on-exchange enrollment tool, www.ebrokersoftware.com. With more than 100 employees in six offices covering the nation and 15,000 actively appointed agents, Ritter solves the distribution needs of more than 80 insurance companies. 

Company’s “PlanCompass.com” Provides Assistance to Consumers Seeking the Best Health Plan with their Preferred Healthcare Providers

CLIFTON, N.J. and NEW YORK, April 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Vericred, Inc. (www.vericred.com), a digital health startup focused on developing accurate, complete and accessible provider data, has been named as one of five finalists in a competition run by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

The “Provider Network Challenge,” administered by Health 2.0, is designed to spur the development of applications that help consumers understand the network of healthcare providers within an insurance plan, and to be able to search for physicians within an insurance network in order to be able to make informed decisions when selecting a health plan. The competition attracted a field of 24 entries.

Vericred, headquartered in New Jersey and with offices in New York City, began operations in 2014. The company’s competition entry was based on its goal of building a national healthcare provider directory and its initial success in developing and launching a consumer-friendly, physician/insurance plan search tool called PlanCompass (www.plancompass.com). The PlanCompass site is free to use and is already serving consumers in four states  ̶  New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. National coverage is slated for Q4 2015, just in time for the next national Affordable Care Act open enrollment period.

“Our research shows that most consumers want a health plan that allows them to keep their doctors,” said Michael Levin, founder and CEO, Vericred. “However, it has been exceedingly difficult to determine which doctors participate in what plans.  PlanCompass.com brings complete transparency to the process by showing whether or not a consumer’s trusted doctors participate in each available plan, thereby allowing consumers to make a fully informed choice.”

In addition to being named a finalist, Vericred and the four other contenders will be awarded $5,000 each and continue on to the final phase of judging to be announced in August 2015.

About Health 2.0

Health 2.0 promotes, showcases, and catalyzes new technologies in health care through a worldwide series of conferences, code-a-thons, prize challenges, and leading market intelligence. Visit www.health2con.com for more info.

About Vericred

Vericred, Inc. is a digital health startup focused on 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.