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Few things are as difficult in the United States as understanding medical bills. Other than the affliction itself, attempting to make sense of the information given on the medical is the most difficult step in getting treated. So of course, people kind of want something to be done about that. And something will be done come September.
Realizing the amount of trouble caused by ineffective and confusing billing, the Obama Administration is to redesign medical bills. This will be done in the form of a contest, with two awards going out to the winners. There are also a number of medical institutions which will help by allowing the new bills to be tested.
U.S. health care
The problem with the medical bills in the United States is that they are highly confusing. Not only is the information of these bills mostly incomprehensible, but it also comes from different sources, and all on the same bill. This can get very confusing, and patients are often billed for the same services twice; and since they can’t make out what the other costs are, they can’t really contest the bill.
People are often forced to skip on their insurance, since it would take months in court to solve anything, and a single typo caused a family to pay more than $1 million. So, the Obama administration decided to have a contest in the hopes of somebody coming up with a better billing format.
Awarding prizes
There will be two prizes awarded to the participants with the best ideas. The first award will go to the person who can design the easiest bill to comprehend, while the second will go to the most innovative idea to actually transform the billing system altogether so as to make it easier to use and understand.
The criteria for the prize will be creativity, comprehensibility, and the manner in which the most reported problems are tackled. You can enter the contest until August 10th, and the winners will be declared in September. Each of the winners will be awarded a prize of $5,000 in cash.
Contributing institutions
Of course, since the medical system is quite a mess, there are some medical institutions eager to have the problem solved. Some of these institutions volunteered to help implement the winning designs in their facilities. From academic medical institutions to unified delivery systems, and safety net firms, pretty much everybody wants this plan to work.
The medical centers that will participate in the implementation process have a total of more than ten million visits per year, 3.5 million of which have health care insurance. Some of the hospitals that have volunteered are Geisinger Health System, Cambia Health Solutions, Utah Health Care, The Metro Health System, Providence Health & Services and the University of INTEGRIS Health.
Image source: Pixabay
