Rice University students launch app to help patients navigate, save money on healthcare
Houston - The Journal of the American Medical Association reports $935 billion is wasted every year on medical costs that are either unnecessary or from inefficient systems.
Some Rice University students have created an app to help patients understand the healthcare system and save money on their care.
The Healthcare Navigator is aimed at helping patients be better informed about their care, shop around, and perhaps even avoid unnecessary procedures.
After working in healthcare administration and seeing patients overwhelmed with trying to research doctors, prices, and information, Rice student Kayla Grimes says she had an idea.
"I wanted to build a platform that could really help people," she said.
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Grimes and eight other students created The Healthcare Navigator, an app and website, to help patients navigate their healthcare options.
It asks questions about your needs, shows you upcoming scheduled appointments, and offers tools, such as Pocket Doc, where users can find local doctors and public data on their experience levels from Medicare and Medicaid websites.
"They get quality metrics, like readmission rates, infection rates, mortality rates, everything you need to know in order to say, 'I know I can trust this person because of their past performance,'" said Grimes.
A feature called Cost Compass pulls prices for procedures that hospitals are required to publish.
"You put in your location, your insurance, and we give you the prices for that procedure or whatever you put in, so that you can make a financially more healthy decision when you’re deciding on where to go for care," explained Grimes.
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Users can get questions answered, learn the ins and outs of the healthcare system, and store information in the app's Care Manager.
The students were mentored by the National Patient Advocate Foundation and Rice professors.
Rice University Behavioral Scientist Dr. Jae Chung believes the app could help patients understand their diagnosis and treatment.
"For example, after a surgery, patients may feel more responsibility to actually comply with recommendations that doctors suggest, whether it be diet or exercise, even follow-up procedures that patients need to comply with," said Chung.
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"We all care about the same thing, which is making it extremely simple for the average patient to be able to navigate healthcare and also be able to get their power back," said Grimes.
Grimes says accounts are password protected. She says Rice University is planning to offer the app to its students, and that they have a few other business customers signed on.
Grimes says consumers can use The Healthcare Navigator for a special rate now of $15.99 a month, and employers can offer it to their employees for $25 every quarter per person.
