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Dr. Bill Hennessey | Pratter, Inc.

Topics:

  • Misaligned Incentives
  • Price Variation
  • Price Transparency
  • Commodity Care
  • Outpatient Care
  • Employee Incentives
  • Medical Cost Savings

In this episode, Michael introduces you to Dr. Bill Hennessey, Founder, and CEO of Pratter, Inc. Join us as we discuss Pratter’s mission to help millions save billions via their medical cost saving and transparency tool that incentivizes employees to access lower cost, high-quality outpatient healthcare.

Here’s a glance at what we discuss in this episode:

  • Dr. Hennessey’s clinical and entrepreneurial experience and why he founded Pratter
  • How price variation, misaligned incentives, egregious hospital pricing and lack of transparency has contributed to increasing healthcare costs
  • The price variation that exists in a routine outpatient care setting and why insurance carriers don’t do a better job guiding people to lower cost, higher quality providers
  • How Pratter’s tool identifies lower cost services and facilities in a searchable format within in a given zip code within any carrier provider network
  • How Pratter secures outpatient pricing data from third-party administrators and asks outpatient facilities for their best price regardless of network discounts
  • Three different pricing structures in healthcare; and why providers and facilities are incentivized to accept cash rather than in-network discounts
  • Pratter’s geographic reach across the country
  • Why existing price transparency tools have such low utilization
  • How employees are incentivized to use the transparency tool through the Pratter Mastercard that provides instant gratification by rewarding the employee for accessing the affordable care with cash incentives and/or shared savings
  • Pratter’s engagement and utilization results range from 15% – 40%
  • How Pratter identifies a list of cost drivers by conducting a cost analysis on historical data during initial employer engagement
  • How misaligned incentives in compensation structures have been an obstacle that Pratter seeks to overcome when implementing their service
  • Pratter has identified that on average there is a 30% price variation (waste) on in-network medical spend
  • How Pratter was just approved to participate as a Medicare vendor with over 100 million outpatient Medicare claims permitted to show the medical provider, charge and allowable amount
  • Pratter website at https://pratter.us or email at info@pratter.us

About the Host, Michael Menerey

Michael Menerey is a Senior Vice President and Benefits Consultant with one of the largest Employee Benefits Brokerage & Consulting firms in the country. He is a partner in the Employee Benefits Practice and works in the Los Angeles office.

2 Comments

  1. Dr. Shawn Echard on 05/05/2018 at 2:10 PM

    Great discussion! I’m a small Podiatry Office but partake in Pratter pricing. Being an independent physician I am a true outlier. I firmly believe that healthcare partnerships have a flawed business model and things may shift back to an unrepentant physician or groups of physicians that are patient centered and can provide a superior service with better outcomes. This will also help the grading of each individual physician which should not only provide additional income for providing better care but will weed out the expensive hospital/partnership owned practices. I hope and pray Pratter becomes a household word.

  2. Rick Sutter on 05/30/2018 at 7:16 PM

    100% true! Self Insured Employers – take control of your healthcare spend. More transparent words were never spoken. Dr. Hennessey delivers an independent, candid message about the secret pricing that takes place within the outpatient medical cost arena. Even and Especially in-network. A proactive employer who values their employee’s health, engagement, and their company’s finances will want to listen to this ‘big reveal’! All CFOs and HR professionals must listen to this podcast. Self insured employers, take note!

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