• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MassDevice

The Medical Device Business Journal — Medical Device News & Articles | MassDevice

  • Latest News
    • Cardiovascular
    • Orthopedics
  • Wall Street Beat
    • Funding Roundup
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Podcasts & Webinars
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • About MassDevice
    • Newsletter Signup
    • Leadership in Medtech
    • Manufacturers & Suppliers Search
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Videos
    • Whitepapers
  • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
  • Coronavirus: Live updates
Home » Cleveland Clinic invests in company that helps patients shop for care

Cleveland Clinic invests in company that helps patients shop for care

June 11, 2010 By MedCity News

MedCity News logo

By Mary Vanac

Already an outspoken advocate for healthy living as a means to cut healthcare costs, Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove is getting behind a company that enables people to shop for care.

Armed with prices, it is believed consumers would shop for bargains, limiting the growth of healthcare costs. The Clinic has made an untold investment in California-based information technology company Castlight Health Inc. to push transparency in healthcare pricing by offering consumers a search engine to find those prices, according to the New York Times.

Castlight’s online tool enables users to better understand their healthcare benefits and costs. The San Francisco-based company recently raised $60 million from investors including the Clinic “to accelerate hiring and further product development in order to serve Castlight Health’s initial customers.”

Its first customer is Safeway, the grocery store chain that employs 200,000 people, according to the Times.

Castlight was co-founded in 2008 by Dr. Giovanni Colella, who is well known in the health IT industry for founding Relay Health — a secure way for patients to communicate with their doctors online — and then making a small fortune by selling that company to McKesson, according to ZDNet Healthcare.

Another heavy hitter helped start Castlight — Todd Park, now chief technology officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who was CEO and co-founder of AthenaHealth.

Why would the Clinic want to invest in Castlight? For one, the Clinic has been a leader in using electronic medical records, which everyone is hoping eventually will lower the cost and raise the quality of healthcare. It’s also worked with Microsoft and Google on electronic medical record projects.

Meanwhile, the Clinic has been at the forefront of offering cost-effective care to employers like Lowe’s. Don’t forget President Obama has held up the Clinic as a model for delivering efficient, cost-effective care.

Typically, prices for healthcare procedures are notoriously hard to get. And healthcare insurers hold negotiated prices close to their vests for competitive reasons. As a result of the lack of transparency, patients can’t compare provider prices.

“The drive toward patient responsibility in healthcare combined with the complete lack of information to support that transition has landed Castlight Health in the middle of the perfect storm,” said Bryan Roberts, partner at investment firm Venrock and co-founder of Castlight, in the company’s release.

“The company is empowering individuals to take control of their healthcare expenses — something that has eluded this country, to date,” Roberts said. “This is a huge market, with extraordinary and palpable customer demand.”

Part of the problem is that employers subsidize a large portion of most employees’ healthcare — and employees don’t. Though some healthcare reform measures encourage individuals to take more responsibility for their healthcare, being equipped with prices alone may not lead to changes in behavior needed to bring down costs.

Meanwhile, the Clinic has about 100 different contracts with insurers, each with different rates for procedures, the Times said. Ideally, transparency in healthcare pricing would lead to higher-quality, lower-cost healthcare, as well as more consumer engagement, Cosgrove, the Clinic’s president and chief executive, told the Times.

Why? “Because they begin to realize that a trip to the doctor is not free, they might stay home and take the aspirin instead of getting the neurologic workup,” Cosgrove said.

Castlight sells its services to employers, charging them a monthly fee based on how many employees they have, the Times said. The employees log on to a search portal where they can find local doctors and their prices for services.

Some insurers have shared their pricing with Castlight, according to the Times. But the company has pulled most of that information from explanation-of-benefits forms doctors give their patients.

And some other companies have begun publishing healthcare prices, the Times said, among them Thomson Reuters and Change:healthcare. Some insurers also publish prices for their policyholders.

It was Castlight’s third funding round and included new investors Morgan Stanley Investment Management, The Wellcome Trust and U.S. Venture Partners. Existing investors Maverick Capital, Oak Investment Partners and Venrock also participated. Previously, the company had raised $21 million, the Times reported.

Filed Under: Business/Financial News, News Well, Software / IT Tagged With: Castlight Health Inc.

In case you missed it

  • Boston Scientific to build new plant outside Atlanta
  • NovaXS unveils prototype for smart, needle-free drug delivery device
  • ResMed names Lucile Blaise as new Sleep & Respiratory Care leader
  • SpineX enrolls first patient in spinal neuromodulation technology trial
  • GE Healthcare’s Carescape ventilator battery recall is Class I
  • Cardinal Health starts Zipline drone deliveries of drugs and medical supplies
  • Advanced NanoTherapies closes $7.2M Series A for drug-coated balloon
  • Centerline Biomedical raises $33M Series B
  • How medical device companies are responding to abortion bans
  • Memic completes first robotic-assisted transvaginal hysterectomy procedures with Hominis
  • ‘Multiple disruptions’ slow timeline for Titan Medical’s Enos robotic surgery platform
  • Philips updates on testing results for recalled ventilators
  • Varian wins FDA IDE for Flash radiation therapy
  • Researchers develop wearable robotic exomuscle system
  • Virpax to pursue over-the-counter pathway for topical spray treatment for osteoarthritis pain
  • Inovio names new chief medical officer
  • FDA clears Acutus’ AcQCross system for use with Boston Scientific’s Watchman

RSS From Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Philips updates on testing results for recalled ventilators
    Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) says only a small portion of returned respiratory devices displayed the sound abatement foam degradation that sparked a massive recall. Repeated ozone cleaning may have made the problem worse. Those were some of the major takeaways from an update Philips provided today on a comprehensive test and research program it implemented after its… […]
  • ResMed names Lucile Blaise as new Sleep & Respiratory Care leader
    Lucile Blaise will be the new president of ResMed’s Sleep & Respiratory Care business starting July 1, ResMed (NYSE: RMD) said today. She replaces Jim Hollingshead, who became president and CEO of Insulet (Nasdaq:PODD) on June 1. ResMed President and COO Rob Douglas is serving as interim president of the Sleep & Respiratory Care during… […]
  • Cardinal Health starts Zipline drone deliveries of drugs and medical supplies
    Cardinal Health (NYSE: CAH) today started air delivery of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies via Zipline drone in North Carolina. San Francisco-based Zipline won FAA Part 135 air carrier certification for the long-range flights earlier this month. The company flew its first commercial deliveries on June 22 with an initial 16-nautical-mile flight. The flights starting… […]
  • How medical device companies are responding to abortion bans
    Days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade’s protection of abortion rights, medical device companies are among those reassuring workers about healthcare access. Corporate communications to employees and the public at large come as trigger laws in nearly half of the states outlaw abortion immediately. Some medtech companies are not using… […]
  • Boston Centerless opens manufacturing plant in Indiana
    Boston Centerless announced today that it opened a second manufacturing plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Woburn, Massachusetts-based Boston Centerless said in a news release that the latest expansion for the supplier of precision ground bar materials for close tolerance CNC Swiss machining applications represents continued robust growth in key market segments in the Midwest and… […]
  • Dymax strikes new partnership with Quantum Systems
    Rapid curing materials and equipment manufacturer Dymax today announced a new sales partnership with Quantum Systems. Torrington, Connecticut-based Dymax said in a news release that Quantum, with its offices in Arizona as well as Sonora and Baja, Mexico, will focus its efforts on promoting and supporting the sales of Dymax light-curing solutions to the medical,… […]
  • Researchers develop wearable robotic exomuscle system
    ETH Zurich researchers have redefined the muscle shirt. Marie Georgarakis, a former doctoral student at ETH Zurich’s Sensory Motor Systems Lab, is the creator of the Myoshirt, a wearable, textile robotic device that helps users lift their arms and reach. A motorized cable works like an artificial tendon, directed by sensors and an algorithm to… […]
  • They said it at DeviceTalks Boston
    Medtech insiders convened at DeviceTalks Boston 2022 in May to discuss device design, innovation and trends shaping the industry now and in the years and decades ahead. Here are some of the most quotable insights from panelists and speakers at our live event. And make sure to save the date — and save your seat… […]
  • Summer health technology program brings diverse group of interns to Silicon Valley
    Diversity by Doing HealthTech (DxD) is holding a Summer Innovation and Exploration Series for college student interns from underrepresented groups. The series is on its second day today at Fogarty Innovation and Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign — the two organizations that jointly formed and support DxD. The event debuted last year in an online… […]
  • Clippard releases new series of isolation valves
    Clippard (Cincinnati) has Its Clippard NIV Series media isolation valve — a solenoid-operated device using a flexible diaphragm to isolate the actuation mechanism from the fluid path. Media isolation valves find everyday use in a wide variety of applications. Think uses that require precise, repeatable dispensing of media for analytical instrumentation. Clippard says media isolation… […]
  • Another Medtronic HVAD recall is serious
    A year after Medtronic ceded the LVAD market to Abbott, it has yet another Class I recall involving HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device pumps still implanted in patients. The FDA today designated a Medtronic recall involving the HVADs as Class I, the most serious level. It’s the second Class I recall designation for the HVADs this… […]

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

DeviceTalks Weekly

June 24, 2022
How innovative design, commercial strategy is building Cala Trio’s bioelectronic medicine market
See More >

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
Need Medtech news in a minute?
We Deliver!

MassDevice Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in med tech. Sign up today.

MDO ad

Footer

MASSDEVICE MEDICAL NETWORK

DeviceTalks
Drug Delivery Business News
Medical Design & Outsourcing
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
MedTech 100 Index
R&D World

Device Talks Webinars, Podcasts, & Discussions

Attend our Monthly Webinars
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
Join our Device Talks Tuesdays Discussion

MASSDEVICE

Subscribe to MassDevice E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Add us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Connect with us on LinkedIn Follow us on YouTube

Copyright © 2022 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Advertise | Privacy Policy | RSS