Top Healthcare and Insurance Insights All in One Place

There are many things to love about living in the United States, but our healthcare system isn’t usually on the list. Health insurance is required by law, but enrolling in a health insurance plan in the States is both confusing and expensive. If you’re one of the millions of Americans who are frustrated and fed up, this one’s for you. The groundbreaking HealthBird platform (soon app too!) is officially up and running, marking the start of a new chapter in American healthcare.

What’s different about HealthBird, you ask? A lot.

The health insurance industry isn’t an easy one to change. There’s over 100 years of history at play. Completely reinventing American healthcare is a tall order, so the HealthBird team focused on making the system we have easier and more accessible. We started changes with the insurance search process, purchase and enrollment.

Up until now, signing up insurance has looked something like this:

Step 1: Find out through a Netflix ad that open enrollment is happening soon

Step 2: Google how to sign up for insurance

Step 3: End up on a disorganized, state-funded health insurance site and fill out a long list of questions

Step 4: Receive an even longer list of plan options

Step 5: Spend hours trying to figure out the difference between each one

Step 6: Give up, and either pick one at random, or go without insurance and hope you don’t get appendicitis

With HealthBird, things work like this instead:

Step 1: Learn ahead of time that open enrollment is coming soon

Step 2: Open app.healthbird.com  

Step 3: Answer a few questions on an intuitive platform

Step 4: Get a handful of customized quotes chosen just for you by our advanced algorithm Costa AI

Step 5: Pick the plan that you like the best. Enrolled!

Step 6: Use the platform  to access your insurance cards, track your prescriptions and get appointment reminders all in one place.

Bonus step: Add dental, vision and hearing coverage to your health insurance in one HealthBird account and rule them all!

Better, huh? You’ll still have access to just as many plan options, only our innovative Costa AI will do all the comparing and sorting for you.

Our old system is so unnecessarily complicated that we need guides to navigate it. HealthBird makes it so much easier to make informed decisions about your own health. Taking care of your health should never be a headache. Our ultimate goal is to reformat old ways of thinking, so that no one ever has to dread signing up for insurance. Oh, and it’s only going to get better from here.

Over the course of the next year, HealthBird members can expect:

• Ongoing app development to continue improving our algorithm’s accuracy and speed
• The launch of a brand new product made just for families (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!)
• The addition of other insurance plan options, like life insurance and pet insurance
• Even more available plans, in more areas of the United States

Ready to see HealthBird in action? Take it for a spin and enroll today.

Is there something we missed? Reshaping American healthcare is a community effort. If you have ideas for HealthBird features you’d like to see in the future, contact us here to share your feedback. We’d love to hear from you.

Everyone knows going without health insurance isn’t a great idea. (It’s also technically illegal, so there’s that.) So why does it have to be so insanely confusing? HMOs, PPOs, tier systems…what does this nonsense even mean? Is an insurance agent required? What’s an insurance marketplace? Do not feel bad if it seems overly complicated and confusing. We were confused too, so we put together the list below to break it down.

Before you start shopping, let’s clear up a few things

1. What the heck is a health insurance policy, anyway?‍

Simply put, a health insurance policy is a contract with a health insurance company. You promise to pay a certain monthly amount in exchange for payment or reimbursement for your health care expenses. Insurance usually covers some services in full, like annual health screenings. You’ll have to pay a portion of the cost of medication, tests, procedures, and specialist visits, but not nearly as much as the services would cost without insurance. For more details on plan types and what costs you can expect, check out our previous journal post covering just that.

2. What are health marketplaces?

Health marketplaces are state-based websites that provide insurance plan options based on your income and circumstances. If you sign up for insurance through Healthcare.gov or your state’s health insurance marketplace, you can find out whether you’re eligible for savings on your next plan.
Health insurance marketplaces aren’t a bad thing. The only downside of shopping for insurance on a traditional marketplace is that you’ll have to read the details of every plan in your price range to see if the coverage is enough for your needs. It can be an overwhelming experience for a non-professional: to weigh all pros & cons of each plan to make a final decision.

3. Why is buying directly from insurance companies a bad idea?

Buying insurance through a marketplace is called buying an “on-exchange” plan. An off-exchange plan is an option, but it’s not a very good one. This happens when you buy a plan directly from an insurance company, like Anthem Blue Cross or UnitedHealth. The benefits will be the same, but because it isn’t processed through a state-based marketplace, you might not receive any savings that you may be eligible for. This might mean to compare simultaneously dozens of plans directly on the insurance company’s website and on the marketplace. Just too much hustle.

4. Gold, silver, platinum…what does insurance have to do with metal? ‍

Nothing, really! The metal tiers are simply used to indicate how much coverage a health insurance policy offers. The more “expensive” the metal, the more coverage is included. A gold or platinum plan will pay a higher percentage of your medical expenses than a bronze or silver plan.

Each tier has pros and cons. If you plan on seeing lots of specialists, or if you have several medications that aren’t covered by cheaper plans, a gold or platinum plan is worth the extra expense. If you primarily use your insurance for wellness visits and emergencies, a lower tier plan may be just fine.‍

5. What is a health insurance quote?

Before you sign up for a policy, you’ll get to see a breakdown of what each plan offers and how much it will cost you. This is called a quote. You don’t have to commit to buying insurance to check your options, so compare at least a few before enrolling in a new policy.
Keep in mind: more isn’t always better. I mean, why would you pay for a Netflix family plan if you’re the only one watching, right? In case you go to the doctor frequently, then yes, a more expensive plan makes sense. You pay more upfront but will pay less for the services after. Cheaper plans equate to more financial risk if you do get sick, but for people who are young and healthy, the extra expense of pricier plans may not be worth it.

6. Is it easier to shop through an insurance agent?

The short answer: No. At first glance, it sounds like a dream. You talk to a real person, and they tell you exactly what plan you should sign up for. They even handle the signup process for you. What’s the problem? Well, insurance agents don’t work for free. They’re paid a commission by health insurance companies, so they’re likely to push you towards options that will land them a bigger check. Even if it’s a more expensive policy than you need. Hard pass. They also don’t represent every insurance company, so you may miss out on an amazing plan just because your insurance agent doesn’t offer it.

7. Where should you purchase a health insurance policy?

Well, let’s look at the options. With an insurance marketplace, you’re eligible for savings, but you also have to sort through all the plans on your own. That takes time. An agent will save you time, but you’ll likely end up spending more money. Then, you have HealthBird. Think of us as your unbiased assistant. We’re like an insurance marketplace that helps narrow down your options for free. You call the final shots; we just do some of the heavy-lifting.

How HealthBird makes it so much easier to shop, buy, and track your health coverage

HealthBird doesn’t make decisions for you. Our game-changing Costa AI is designed to assess your needs and sort through available plans for you. It saves tons of time, and with no additional cost. Our Costa AI can:

• Analyze over 100 health insurance plans from the 18 states HealthBird currently covers, saving hours of research time*.
• Eliminate the bias of human insurance agents, who love to upsell customers on plans they don’t really need
• Offer instant quotes to compare. Need more time to think over your options? No worries. You can come back later to review your quotes, and the rates won’t change a bit.
• Ask questions that actually matter. For example, Costa takes into account parameters that are important to you, like the number of doctor visits you usually need each year, or which medications you take. We analyze not one, not two, but 16 different parameters to help you find the perfect plan. Guess how many parameters healthcare.gov considers? Six. If their site challenged us to a fight, we’d stand down, because it just wouldn’t be fair.
• Simplify the entire enrollment process. When you pick a plan, you’ll fill out your information one time. That’s it. No more paperwork. (We hate paperwork, so this is our favorite feature.)
• Make your insurance shopping experience easy and fun. The seamless, modern app design is intuitive and easy enough for your 90-year-old grandpa to use.

What’s the catch? Oh wait, there isn’t one.

HealthBird is like the Match.com of health insurance shopping, minus the awkward first dates. (Plus, we’ll never ghost you!) Instead of getting a policy that gets an agent the biggest check, or wasting hours staring at confusing insurance jargon before giving up and picking a random plan just to be done with it, you’ll get a policy you’ll actually use, for a price you can afford.

Questions? We’re all about helping our members make educated choices about their health, so feel free to reach out if you need additional help via our social media channels or Live chat on the website.. We’ve been there!

*Based on the area code the number of insurance plans analyzed for a certain filter may vary.

Every groundbreaking company needs big thinkers, but they also demand a great deal of financial acumen to make it through launch and beyond. We’re proud to introduce HealthBird’s Chief Financial Officer, Mirtha Fonte, who’s helping HealthBird to reach its full potential.

Mirtha brings over 25 years of experience to the table. After earning her degree in Accounting and achieving her CPA certification, she led implementations and professional service teams for Systems Union for 12 years. She also served as the Chief Financial Officer of KRS Global Biotechnology, successfully helping the company to unify all their corporate departments in a single, cohesive system. She also re-negotiated procurement contracts for KRS, saving the company more than $400,000 every year. Additionally, she led the implementation of all corporate governance programs related to finance and human resources. The bottom line? Over the course of her 10-year tenure, she saw KRS from the pre-revenue stage to acquisition.

Mirtha also founded a company of her very own called LedgerPros Consulting. There, she helped small and medium sized companies with project management and the optimization of their financial goals and functions.

At HealthBird, Mirtha is in charge of all financial accounting, procurement, and human resource functions. To say she knows what she’s doing is an understatement, and we’re incredibly grateful to have her on board. Learn more about the HealthBird team and how you can be a part of it on our founders page.