Patent Application

App. No. 13/246,060

Abstract

Claims (27)

1 . A method for the ranking of health care providers, the method comprising:

identification of a user and logging of said user into a database having user information stored therein;

entering of additional user demographic information necessary for a comparison of health care provider services;

selecting a desired medical procedure for comparison between providers

presenting to said user of a facility ranking for said desired medical procedure based upon quality and cost;

storage of ranking information for future retrieval by said user; and

forwarding said ranking information to an insurance carrier to which the user subscribes.

2 . The method according claim 1 further comprising, emailing said ranking information to said user.

3 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising confirming an incentive list provided by the insurance carrier.

4 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising issuing an incentive to said user for using said method.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising issuing an incentive payment to a user.

6 . The method according to claim 5 wherein said incentive check is issued based on incentive criteria set by an employer of said user.

7 . The method of claim 1 further comprising validating said user's qualification for incentives.

8 . The method of claim 1 wherein said identification of a user comprises requesting insurance character ID number, and first and last name.

9 . The method of claim 1 wherein said facility ranking is ranked according to cost.

10 . The method of claim 1 wherein said facility ranking is ranked in order of quality ratings.

11 . The method of claim 1 wherein said method is applied to procedures selected based on frequency of procedure, cost, and number of providers within a region.

12 . The method of claim 1 wherein said ranking are based on data collected from reimbursement contracts.

13 . The method of claim 1 wherein contractual allowed amounts for each procedure and frequency of performance are aggregated by facility.

14 . The method of claim 13 wherein said aggregation employs either a weighted average or median by provider.

15 . A system for the ranking of health care providers, said system comprising:

a user access portal whereby a user is identified and allowed access to said system;

a medical procedure listing from which said user selects a medical procedure for ranking;

a ranking engine, whereby a rank is generated for health care providers in a geographic region based on weight average costs for said medical procedure;

said rank is provided to said user and is stored for future access by said user;

a reporter, whereby an incentive administrator is informed of said ranking for said user;

incentives issued to said user if said user utilizes said a provider with a ranking indicative of lowest weighted average cost for said region.

Assignments (9)