While the high cost of health care continues to be the bane of many businesses, a Bedford-based company is finding success helping companies and their employees save money by seeking out affordable health care.
Here's how it works. Companies contract with Compass Healthcare Advisers to give their employees access to a SmartShopperTM program that helps members identify the most cost-effective local places to have various outpatient procedures and tests done. Members who choose a cost-effective location receive a cash incentive between $25 and $100 as pre-determined by their employer.
"It's the employer's program," says Rob Graybill, president and CEO of Compass Healthcare Advisers, which was founded in the fall of 2009 and has been servicing clients since January 2010. Graybill says the program saves employers on premium costs as employees spend less on procedures. "The cost [of the program] can vary depending on the size of the employer. It's a fixed [monthly] administrative fee [per employee]," he says.
Compass uses software to aggregate claims data and produce a database of geographically relevant procedures and associated costs. Compass members can either log onto the SmartShopper Web site or call an 800 number to access information on covered procedures, available facilities and associated costs, including CT Scans, colonoscopies, hernia repairs, knee arthroscopies and MRIs.
Graybill says the cost for such services as an MRI can vary widely even when providers are only a couple miles apart. "The difference in price is dependent on where you parked your car," Graybill says. "If we don't pay attention to what things cost, our insurance premiums will continue to go up year after year."
In NH, Compass has an exclusive partnership with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, meaning the service is only available in NH to Anthem's customers. Among those that have signed on as Compass customers are Centrix Bank in Bedford, Foss Manufacturing in Hampton, the City of Manchester, and the State of NH. Compass currently has 200 employers as customers, covering 50,000 people, and the company says it has saved employers more than $100,000 in 2010 claims.
Compass is in conversations with employers and insurance firms outside NH to offer its service elsewhere. For more information, visit www.compasssmartshopper.com.