MSNBC Nightly News just published a story on the price variability between cities all across the country, something change:healthcare has been trying to spread the word about for years! Check out this great 2 minute video (embedded below) that describes the scenario pretty well!

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Because of sky-rocketing drug costs, people are looking everywhere for ways to save money on medicine they need to live. And what better way to connect with people than through the tools they are using already. Twitter is that tool! You have Twitter open all day and are watching tweets from friends come across, why not use Twitter as a free health care savings tool too?

How Do I use @ASKch to Save Money on Prescriptions?

change:healthcare has made it so easy, it should be illegal! Simply follow the steps below, and you will be finding ways to save on prescriptions, definitions for medical terms and health conditions and more… all delivered via private direct message using Twitter!

1. Follow @askch on Twitter
2. Send a formatted question via direct message
3. Get a fast, automated answer. That’s it!

What Info Do I Send to @ASKch to Get Info Back?

We took the most common questions people ask about their healthcare, and created a way for you to get the answers, via Twitter, in 60 seconds or less. Below are examples of questions you can get answers to!

• Cost of [drug name] near [zipcode]

  example tweet: “d askch cost of lexapro near 37211“

• Generic for [drug name]

  example tweet: “d askch generic for plavix“

• What is [drug name]

  example tweet: “d askch what is lipitor“

• What is [health issue]

  example tweet: “d askch what is diabetes“

• Generic discounts for [drug name] near [zipcode]

  example tweet: “d askch generic discounts for pravachol near 37221“

This simple tool for saving on prescriptions basically provides you with the following information. If you send it your prescription name and zipcode, it finds the cheapest pharmacy where you can buy that prescription and sends you a link to find out more information. But saving money on prescriptions is more than just finding a lower price. If you ask @askch how to save money by switching to a generic drug, it will send you all of the known names of the generics for your name brand prescription. Generics are the same thing (guided by the FDA), but are much cheaper. Finally, generic discounts are available for 100′s of prescriptions too. Generic discounts are typically available for $4 for 30 days or $10 for 90 days from most pharmacies and grocery store pharmacies. If you ask @askch if there is a generic discount, it will tell you yes/no and if yes, how much it costs and at what pharmacy!

Saving money used to be complicated. Thanks to ASKch, it’s much simpler now.

BTW, if you know me, you know I work for change:healthcare and helped develop this tool. You should use it, it rocks. :)

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Last night, President Obama spoke on healthcare reform at a joint session for Congress. While I love a great presentation, which Obama always delivers, I was not completely sold on everything he was saying… but mainly because I could not personally review the documents :) If you did not see it, check out the NY Times video replay with a timed breakdown of talking points to catch up.

President Obama delivered some tough news to both parties saying essentially that he was not going to take shit from anyone, and that he was not leaving office until a healthcare bill was in place. He tried hard to combat all of the oppositions major problems with his proposed reform: not covering illegal immigrants, not covering abortion, giving coverage to all Americans as well as who was going to pay for the public program. For me, since I work for change:healthcare, a company that helps people save money on doctors visits and prescriptions, I would love to read the details of the reform documents.

You see, there are a lot of problems with healthcare. Most of them, in my opinion, exist because we Americans do not know (or care most of the time) what healthcare really costs! I hate to tell you, but your office visit to the doctor for your yearly physical does not cost $20. It probably costs more like $90 – $150 — and if you don’t have health insurance, or you have a high deductible, your cost could be $150-$200 or more for that office visit. And even that cost only covers the visit. If you have bloodwork or other tests, the cost is even more. Never is it $20. I could rant all day about this, but I will save you the pain.

The point is, healthcare reform is needed, and hopefully Obama is the guy to do it. but we need to know the details of what we are getting into, and that we will not be selling our souls to pay for it. Obama, shows the details!

What did you think about Obama’s Healthcare Reform presentation last night? What did you think about the GOP response? Were you happy with what you heard, or concerned? Please leave a comment and let me know.Similar Posts:

• Confused About Generic Drugs? You Could be Paying 70% too Much!
• New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare
• Did You Know 20% of Every Dollar in America is Spent on Healthcare?

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Finally people are starting to catch on! The place I work, change:healthcare, is on a mission. That mission is to add transparency to the confusing world of healthcare and to help normal people like you and I make better decisions regarding where we spend or money for health related expenses. The truth is, you know more about a local pizza joint from the internet than they guy who delivered your child or prescribed your latest medication. That is just wrong… not to mention that there is a good chance that you paid too much money. This is where change:healthcare steps in.

Cant See the Video? Click Here to watch it on YouTube.
CNN found our website and understood the value immediately. Then, they featured us on their national CNN News program telling people that healthcare is confusing and you should use our site. Sweet! Checkout the video clip below for more information.

Where to find out more about Change:Healthcare

• change:healthcare on CNN, teaches you how to save money on health expenses
• Visit the healthcare information site at www.changehealthcare.com

Similar Posts:

• Did You Know 20% of Every Dollar in America is Spent on Healthcare?
• Confused About Generic Drugs? You Could be Paying 70% too Much!
• New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare

Related posts:

1. Did You Know 20% of Every Dollar in America is Spent on Healthcare?
2. New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare

As many of you know, I am new to healthcare. I’ve never really cared much about the costs or prescriptions or doctors visits because I worked for companies that paid for most of the expenses if I were to ever need them. But in light of everything going on in the world today with small business owners being less and less able to afford health benefits for their employees, it is more important now then ever for us as educated citizens to be conscious of what prescriptions cost us.

Thankfully the new company I have come to work at, change:healthcare, has started taking the steps to educate us, the consumers, on how to work with our doctors to save money. One of the easiest ways (and the way that concerns most of us) is on prescriptions. The truth is, most name brand prescriptions are EXPENSIVE, yet many of them have generic alternatives. Here is a link to the change:healthcare field guide about how to ask your doctor about generics and about how you could save up to 70% on your prescription costs by switching to generics.

If you do nothing else, talk to your doctor about generic drugs to start saving money. The field guide tells you how to talk to your doctor and what questions to ask. Also, if you are interested, you can go the prescriptions section of change:healthcare and look up the drugs you are on to see how much others are paying for them, and where you could them cheaper too.

Links to Resources to Save Money on Generic Drugs:

• Free field guide describing generic drugs and cost savings
• Visit change:healthcare and see how much you can save on generics

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Well, the news is official now. I left Mevio about 5 weeks ago to move back home to Nashville, TN and to start a new career…this time, in healthcare.

Through my early days of podcasting I was extremely fortunate to meet tons of great people. But in 2005 I was contacted by a gentleman by the name of Christopher Parks. At that time he was just a lowly podcaster to me (jab), host of a show called the BizCast (don’t look for it, you won’t find it. He pulled all the links down). Turns out he had a lot more to offer to the world than just a small town business podcast.

Christopher started the company I now work for as Product Manger, change:healthcare, out of frustration with the healthcare industry, and all the medical bills resulting from both of his parents unanticipated deaths within 1 year of each other. While this seems like a sad story (with no disrespect to Christopher or his family), it truly is a blessing to Americans everywhere who struggle with healthcare, related costs and confusion every single day of their lives. Because of this tragic event, Christopher was driven to make sure no one had to suffer through the confusion of paperwork, rejections and health jargon while dealing with sick and dying loved ones like he did.

You will no doubt hear more and more about this rising star, change:healthcare, in the coming months & years. We are growing explosively, releasing robust bill management tools and helping people save TONS OF MONEY on their healthcare costs every single day. But I will save the details for a later post.

For now, let me just say I am proud to be working with this company. They epitomize everything a company should strive to be: energetic, proud of their offering, revolutionary in their product and services, leaders in their field, and making a difference that is monumental to the growth and education of our nation as a whole.

If you are interested, you can read more about change:healthcare and the products and services offered here.

Links of Interest for this Post

• The official Press Release of My Joining change:healthcare
  
• The Change:Healthcare Website
• The Nashville Post Coverage of My Joinging the company

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• Confused About Generic Drugs? You Could be Paying 70% too Much!
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You may not know it, but a change is coming. Soon we Americans are going to breathe a collective sigh of relief and wonder to ourselves, “what the hell were we thinking?”. The healthcare industry as we know it is seriously fucked up. It is not going to change over night, but with the help of one small company it just may be changed from this point on. Enter change:healthcare.

change:healthcare has one mission… To provide consumers with the tools, services and information they need to make the best healthcare decisions possible. Period.

Did you take a minute to read the words in the image above and grasp how awful this is?

“20% of every dollar in America is spent on healthcare.”

With the amount of money, time, energy, frustration and confusion that exists within the healthcare system, hardworking people like you and I have previously been left out of the conversation. We have been left to fend for ourselves and to find our own information in order to make intelligent decisions about how we spend our money in regard to health related expenses. Do yourself a favor: visit this page and learn about the change that IS coming. Starting March 3, 2008, you too will be able to change healthcare.

>> Change Healthcare WebsiteSimilar Posts:

• CNN Uses change:healthcare to Show People How to Save Money on Healthcare Expenses (video)
• New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare
• Confused About Generic Drugs? You Could be Paying 70% too Much!

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1. CNN Uses change:healthcare to Show People How to Save Money on Healthcare Expenses (video)
2. New Job Official > I Have Joined Change:Healthcare