Lessons Learned from a Design & Innovation Challenge
This report shares the lessons learned from the “A Bill You Can Understand” Design and Innovation Challenge, an open design competition dedicated to helping patients in the U.S. health care system understand their medical bills and the financial aspect of health.
We describe what we found while preparing these materials related to pain points for patients associated with the current medical billing process and opportunities for improvement. We summarize the common features in the entries, with special focus on the Published Set of two prize winners and ten honorable mentions.
Finally, we share insights into what members of the health care industry can learn from these innovative designs. Patients today are expected to integrate, verify and prioritize cost and billing information flowing to them from multiple sources. The best designs integrate these into one or fewer sources before reaching the patient.
We propose three pathways that align the flow of information with current consumer expectations:
- Healthcare Network as Source
- Insurer as Source
- Third-Party Service as Source
All three pathways address a common theme: alleviate the fragmentation of the patient’s financial relationships.
