One of the major consumer credit bureaus wants to get into the business of helping patients know much the medical care they are getting will really cost them.
TransUnion L.L.C., Chicago, today announced that its TransUnion Healthcare unit has acquired Financial Healthcare Systems L.L.C., Centennial, Colo.
TransUnion collects information about whether consumers have made their mortgage payments, auto loan payments, credit card payments, and payments to hospitals and other health care providers on time.
The Financial Healthcare FHSClearQuote system gives consumers an estimate of what their out-of-pocket costs for health care will be before they get the care – and run up the kinds of bills that TransUnion ends up tracking.
The companies are not saying how much TransUnion is paying for Financial Healthcare.
Timothy Estes, chief executive of Financial Healthcare, says he and his colleagues are excited to be part of a company that can provide the resources Financial Healthcare needs to grow.
Although TransUnion is best known as a credit bureau, it also offers a Revenue Manager system that helps doctors and hospitals handle patients who are depending on charity care programs or paying for care out of their own pockets, or both.
TransUnion will be combining the FHSClearQuote system with the Revenue Manager system and offering the combined system to existing Revenue Manager and FHSClearQuote system clients, TransUnion says.
NUMBER CRUNCHER
This seems to be the Year of the Actuary.
CNO Financial Group Inc., Carmel, Ind. (NYSE:CNO), became the latest company to make a high-profile actuary hire earlier this week when it brought Blake Westerfield aboard as vice president, product management, worksite health and specified disease. He will report to Dick Garner, who's the senior vice president of product management for health.
Westerfield has been the chief actuary at Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company, Glenview, Ill.
Before that, he worked for Celtic Insurance Company, Chicago.