Picwell, the most advanced predictive recommendation engine for health plan selection, today announced finalized agreements to conduct studies focused on the potential impact of latest generation decision support systems on consumer health plan selection. Within the terms of the agreement, Picwell will utilize de-identified data provided by state exchanges to measure and analyze the choices made by enrollees during the 2014 open enrollment period. Among the first to participate is Minnesota's insurance exchange, MNsure.
"We are always looking for ways to improve community health, patient experience and the affordability of health care," stated MNsure's CEO, Scott Leitz. "We are thrilled to work with Picwell on this groundbreaking study, the results of which will enable us to provide Minnesotans with the technology support needed to choose the right health plan with confidence."
As part of the studies, Picwell will harness its proprietary technology and data platform to simulate a representative population's choices under varying scenarios. Specifically, the Company will compare the choices that would be made under a Picwell health plan decision support tool that optimizes consumer decisions based upon current and future spending, risk tolerance and individual preferences, against the actual data of prior open enrollment, 2014.
Analyzing more than 900,000 variables that affect plan selection, Picwell's objective SaaS-based tool integrates directly into both public and private healthcare exchanges and benefits platforms. Recommendations are created using data provided by the consumer, which is then correlated with Picwell's massive data sandbox through proprietary algorithms. This output, leveraged alongside predictive analytics, behavioral economics, and machine learning, enables the Picwell engine to produce quick, easy-to-understand health plan rankings and relevant details to the consumer.
"Health plan selection is one of the biggest cost decisions consumers make every year, yet so little is fully understood. As we begin these studies with the state exchanges, our combined hope is to gather data that will understand the potential for better health plan selection for consumers when using state-of-the-art decision support," said Jay Silverstein, CEO of Picwell. "Even the most sophisticated purchaser is not capable of understanding each and every nuance of coverage, be fully up to speed on the changes in medical treatments, or predict the future of their utilization of health care services. We firmly believe that providing next generation decision support technology is a vital part of increasing consumer satisfaction and confidence."
The State Health Reform Assistance Network (State Network), a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is contributing partial support for the initiative.
"Our goal is to help states expand access to affordable, high quality health insurance coverage," explained State Network Director Heather Howard. "We are pleased to support research to help state marketplaces empower consumers to optimize their coverage decisions."
The technology studies will commence this fall, with a goal of result reporting in Q4 2014.
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