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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > August 12, 2008
Patient Care to provide services for Assurant clients
Published August 12, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
Patient Care, a national advocacy and health care consumerism company headquartered in Milwaukee, has signed a contract to provide its patient advocacy services to all new Assurant Health policyholders.
Milwaukee-based Assurant Health provides coverage to individual, small group and short-term medical customers through a variety of products. Assurant Health is the first national carrier to offer Patient Care for new individual and small group medical plans.
Patient Care's services are designed to be beneficial for people with high-deductible health plans and/or health savings accounts (HSAs). The services enables patients to compare cost and quality data for up to three network providers.
For example, consumers can call Patient Care 15 days before a recommended test or surgery to get quality information along with the estimated total cost, network discounts and out-of-pocket expenses for each provider.
More than 1,000 respondents in a Patient Care survey last year reported that they had saved an average of $1,050 per service request.
"Our market research shows that consumers value an independent healthcare advocate," said Deborah Kramer, senior vice president of marketing at Assurant. "Patient Care has demonstrated an ability to assist consumers across the United States with their health care decisions and provide assistance with issues related to their healthcare and insurance. We are very excited to be working with them to support our policyholders' healthcare strategies."
"Health care and insurance can be complicated for people," said Jane Cooper, president and chief executive officer of Patient Care. "Patient Care advocates provide an additional level of advocacy, communication and education - all focused on the policyholder's specific situation."
Patient Care serves more than 250,000 members in all 50 states. As one of the national leaders in advocacy services, Patient Care was launched in New Orleans in 2001. The company remained headquartered there until Hurricane Katrina, when the decision was made to move the company headquarters to Milwaukee.
