With barely a whimper, Cambia Health Solutions sounded the death knoll this week on one of its latest innovation to transform the healthcare marketplace – Wellero, which was intended to make to easier for patients to pay their medical bills before leaving a doctor’s office. Cambia is the parent company of the Regence health plans in Oregon, Washington, Utah and Idaho.
Jared Ishkanian, strategic communications spokesman, declined to say how many employees would lose their jobs following the shutdown or how much money Cambia had invested in Wellero. He did tell The Lund Report, “We launch start-up ventures like Wellero because of their potential to transform health care. Sometimes, those early stage investments don’t bloom into mature stand-alone companies. However, Wellero have pioneered new tools and services that we’ll build on to benefit consumers.”
Hanny Freiwat, its president, co-founded the technology company in 2012 with Shawn Smith after working at Cambia Health Solutions on other enterprises.
And, Freiwart couldn’t have sounded more enthusiastic when he rolled out the new technology, which enabled providers to collect copay and coinsurance within three days reducing paperwork and billing errors. In 2013, he told the media:
“We’ve all left the doctor’s office only to receive a surprise bill in the mail weeks later. As patients ourselves, we saw a need for the ability to check-in, see the price of the service, and calculate the cost of the visit based on our insurance coverage. We wanted to pay at the provider’s office if we were incented with a prompt payment discount or just to avoid the confusing paper trail that precedes the actual bill.
“We’ve received resounding feedback from the provider community that the app is easy to use and streamlines their office staff processing. We expect this app to revolutionize the health care payment system by engaging the consumer in an educated dialogue with the provider. Wellero is committed to changing the relationship between providers and consumers and expects these changes will help lower national health care costs by reducing providers cost and helping consumers with understanding how to navigate a very complex industry through education and true price transparency. Wellero partners with health plans, employer groups, and providers to offer its customers the best price when they need care.”
It’s unknown whether Freiwat and Smith are still employed by Cambia. . Diane can be reached at [email protected].
