Bind, a digital health insurance startup, is using machine learning algorithms to design health plans that allow customers to add coverage as they need it, according to CNBC.
The company isn't a stand-alone insurer just yet. Instead, it uses UnitedHealth Group's provider networks and data analytics to manage benefits for self-insured employers. Its coverage plans feature basic co-pays that range from $15 for a visit to a retail clinic to $100 for one at an urgent care facility and carve out deductibles for primary care and specialist visits, maternity coverage, hospital care, medications and cancer treatment.
Out-of-pocket costs are higher for elective procedures, and those co-pays factor in the total cost. In this way, customers are told the full price of the procedure up front so there are no surprise bills later.
"It's not intuitive for people, but I think when we started this we thought, 'how do people really use the healthcare system?' And we used it in an on-demand way," Tony Miller, co-founder and CEO of Bind, told CNBC.
Bind, which is backed by Ascension Ventures, Lemhi Ventures and UnitedHealthcare, hopes to function more effectively than high-deductible health plans. In fact, by laying out the total costs of procedures, it helps employees save 10 to 15 percent compared to out-of-pocket deductible plans.
"A market might be $6,000 to $24,000 for knee arthroscopy," Mr. Miller told CNBC. "What Bind does is says [for] the $6,000 performer — you only have to pay $1,000 to have access to them. If you want to go to the $24,000 knee arthroscopy with no difference in quality, no difference in performance, you have to pay $6,000 as a consumer … What happens is the consumers actually go and buy the more cost-effective provider and they save money. But more importantly, the entire pool saves money ... we save $18,000 for the group,"