While everyone tries to find a silver lining in the results of the election—no matter from which side they're looking—business is ALWAYS aiming to both maximize opportunities as well as limit potential damage.

So it's not at all surprising to see a raft of forecast pieces on "the opportunities for business with the incoming administration and congress" like this Healthcare Priorities post from Pacific Business Group On Health (PBGH). Optimism over the prospects of bipartisan agreement on what seem to be sensible healthcare initiatives seems reasonable. To write about, at least.

Writing for the "FIERCE Healthcare" online newsletter, Paige Minemyer highlights a major corporate call to action:  "High health benefit costs come at the expense of core business investments and hold down wages, dampen business growth and squeeze family budgets." Put bluntly, healthcare costs (including premiums for corporate-sponsored plans) are crowding out everything else—for businesses AND their employees.

DOC$ has the following challenge—and opportunity—for HR and benefits leaders at medium to large firms—especially those who are either self-insured, or those who pay a large percentage of employees' premiums. First, make it a mission to equip your constituents with information resources. Healthcare Price Transparency is a great concept whose time has come, but will ONLY be achieved if workgroups share medical price information with each other. DOC$ is the tool to accomplish this.

Employees can use our platform to report medical expenses under a created username to protect anonymity. Then our search functions can be used to find high-value providers in the employee's own area. We've written previously about examples wherein a worker needing an expensive test like an MRI or a CT-Scan can find a provider for say, $400-500 rather than a similar one costing over $2,000. Expenses like these are increasingly "subject to deductible" but can also affect a corporation's risk rating. Not to mention the vast majority of working families would benefit greatly from access to such potential savings.

Second, make sure all your employees are aware how to avoid "Surprise Billing" without needing a law from Congress that will most likely NOT be forthcoming. That technique is quite simple, is called "Qualified Authorization" and can be implemented by each one of us. Please comment here or on one of our social media posts and we'll help you with both of these worthy initiatives.

Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!