Dive Brief:
- Philadelphia-based Picwell, which has created technology to help consumers choose a health plan, announced this week that it has secured $4 million in Series A funding in a round led by MassMutual Ventures, with additional participation from industry executives including Tenet Healthcare CEO Trevor Fetter, Amedisys CEO Paul Kusserow and Humana's former president of health and well-being services, Bruce Perkins.
- Picwell's technology, which it licenses to insurers, employers, and healthcare exchanges,analyzes more than 900,000 variables to help consumers find the most appropriate plan for their needs.
- Picwell says it is cash flow positive and that it plans to use its additional funding to expand its operations and to accelerate its development of related decision support products.
Dive Insight:
Picwell's analytic support helps provide transparency as consumers shop plans, according to the company. It does this by providing personalized assessments on plan costs, out of pocket expenses and the value of each plan's benefits, and it then provides individuals with their own Picwell Score for each available plan. The scores are based not only on consumers' information, but on information from the CMS on drug formularies, provider networks and claims.
"In our first year we clearly demonstrated that we can positively impact the lives of everyone who uses our services," Picwell CEO Jay Silverstein said in a prepared statement. "As we expand, and the insurance arena becomes more retail oriented, Picwell will play a key role in creating more dynamic and efficient markets, for all participants."