COMPANY

Name: MedBillIQ

Legal: MedBill IQ LLC.

Location: Los Angeles

Founded: 2016

Founder(s): Peter Ye, Dr. Yury Furman

Website: http://medbilliq.com/

Social Media Following: 172 Likes on Facebook, 291 Followers on Twitter, 801 Instagram

INDUSTRY – Health Tech

Size: $179.6Bn (2016) (Source: “Digital Health Market”)

Projections: $536.6Tn by 2025

Introduction

MedBill IQ – short for Medical Bill IQ – is a startup seeking to advocate for patients who need help negotiating their insurance bills with providers and medical facilities. MedBill IQ acts as a middleman using experts to review medical bills in order to search for inaccuracies, as well as negotiating with insurance providers to bring down the overall cost. By paying a small monthly bill or a percentage of overall savings, MedBill IQ brings down the cost of medical procedures, no matter how big or how small.

The concept is this: complicated medical paperwork often comes with inaccurate assessments of the medical cost that the patient ultimately has to pay. The patient, however, does not have the knowledge to identify these inaccuracies, and therefore needs an expert to act as an intermediary in the process. MedBill IQ provides such experts to analyze whether bills are properly coded and to identify any inaccuracies that may have gone unnoticed by both medial workers and insurance providers. This helps bring down the cost of the bill.

The Product

MedBill IQ requires you to send your medical bill so it can be assessed for inaccuracies. In terms of payment you have three options, depending on your plan. If you wish to avoid a plan altogether, one use of MedBill IQ costs $99 plus 30% of the total savings once the negotiations are finalized. However, consumers can also purchase a protection plan for $8 a month which charges no processing fees or commission, and which covers the negotiation of all medical bills, however small. A family plan costs $12 a month and provides for two people at no other cost, while adding additional people to the plan costs $49 per person. All prices are as of publishing this article.

Once your plan is finalized you simply have to give the bill to MedBill IQ, either digitally or by fax, and sign a release form agreeing to give the company access to your medical information. The bill is then reviewed by experts, a process that can take about five business days depending on the complexity and amount. MedBill IQ will then appeal and negotiate the bill, a process that can take up to 3-6 weeks. MedBill IQ also operates with several loan companies in order to provide credit if the patient is unable to pay the final amount.

Origin and Founders

MedBill IQ was founded by Peter Yeh and Dr. Yury Furman in 2016. Peter Yeh has a background in business alone. Before co-founding MedBill IQ Yeh worked for Enterprise car rentals as a branch regional manager. Dr. Yury Furman graduated from the University of California Irvine School of Medicine in 1990 after completing his residency at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center. He now runs a practice in West Los Angeles, where he specializes in sleep disorders.

Besides MedBill IQ, two other companies have attempted to get into the business of bill negotiation: DisputeBills.com and Remedy, both of which folded after only a few years.