Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Healthcare Costs Pre-Visit

Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by sidlls on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @06:40PM (#20690980)

How is your service different from the many other players in this space that have failed or are struggling to succeed?

To provide context: price transparency is basically a commodity, and the actual prices a patient will be deemed to owe for services rendered isn't just hard to predict, it's sometimes literally not possible. I've worked in this space for years. The problems with this industry aren't technology problems, they're people (political) problems. From what I can see, your company isn't actually doing anything that isn't already available and in some cases implemented. That's the motivation behind my question.

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by jaredhansen on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @01:24AM (#20692900)

>The problems with this industry aren't technology problems, they're people (political) problems

This is an underappreciated insight. I am working on something in a related field and I appreciate your insight here. I'd like to discuss with you at your convenience, but don't see any contact info in your profile. If you're up for more detail, can you please drop me a note via email in profile? Thanks!

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by lawlorino on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @03:21AM (#20693368)

> The problems with this industry aren't technology problems, they're people (political) problems.

This is a great point that I feel could be copy pasted to a lot of Show HN business ideas. This SV bubble mindset is that everything is an engineering problem and can be solved with some kind of tech, ignorant of understanding the real root of the problem.

Edit: Relevant XKCD https://xkcd.com/1831/

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by VRay on Wednesday August 14, 2019 @03:24PM (#20699018)

All these guys are missing is a blockchain

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by Hydrick3232 on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @06:53PM (#20691083)

Great question. A lot of early success for us has been through our fully automated and integrated billing approach and our ability to communicate a customized estimate for a patient pre-visit. Also, timing plays a huge roll in success. Never before has there been such an emphasis on creating a retail like experience in healthcare.

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by staticautomatic on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @11:01PM (#20692376)

This is not a substantive answer to the question you were asked.

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by Hydrick3232 on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @06:59PM (#20691115)

Good to get the context. Yes, legislation will definitely help but we feel that technology can definitely make a large difference in healthcare.

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Re:Launch HN: Shift Health (YC S19) – Understand Your Health... by sidlls on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @10:01PM (#20692092)

Yes I understand you feel that way; you wouldn't have invested time and sweat and money otherwise. Your company is basically a feature that has been considered (or attempted) at other, bigger, more established, and currently struggling health tech companies in the bay area, and then discarded. There's a reason for that (it's harder than it looks and isn't profitable at scale.

Have you investigated and understood why and what differentiates you from them?

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