HealthShare is pleased to announce that in January 2020 we received a record 84,940 Private Health Insurer (PHI)-filtered specialist and ancillary practitioner searches through the HealthShare GP and Consumer platform. This represents a 52% year-on-year increase compared to January 2019 (56,000 searches) and over 300% increase compared to January 2018 (21,000 searches).
Our practitioner directory has seen strong growth over the last year since the HealthShare Referrals integration with Best Practice’s Bp Premier GP clinical software. Best Practice announced recently that over 50% of its users were interacting with the HealthShare directory on a monthly basis. Along with the existing MedicalDirector Clinical partnership, around 90% of Australian GPs have access to the health fund fees information to assist patients within their regular specialist referral-writing process.
HealthShare has also seen record traffic to its www.healthshare.com.au website, with over 800,000 monthly unique visitors accessing the site in the last 30 days. This is an increase of almost 80% from the last quarter of 2019.
HealthShare CEO, Mr Rami Weiss, said “It is very pleasing to see the strong growth in utilisation of our website and PHI filter functionality to help patients and their GPs make better-informed decisions about the right specialist for their needs. We remain committed to investing in initiatives that engage with GPs and patients to educate them about the gap scheme and out-of-pocket costs transparency data in our directory and how it can support them when making a referral decision. GPs are increasingly aware and receptive to the importance of specialist fees amongst the various factors they consider in referring their patients. The depth of information HealthShare is able to deliver through our health fund partners, and broad health industry partnerships, is something we are incredibly proud of. It’s resonating with GPs and our GP software partners are working with us to promote informed GP and patient referral decisions.”
The depth of information HealthShare is able to deliver through our health fund partners, and broad health industry partnerships, is something we are incredibly proud of.
— Tweet this quote
In parallel, the strong national spotlight on medical out-of-pocket costs continues. While the launch of the highly-publicised federal government specialist fees website has come under scrutiny, the attention it brings to the medical cost issue has amplified the response from GPs and patients to HealthShare initiatives due to the richness and breadth of information, including fees information, with which HealthShare informs choices.
Mr Weiss said “Cost is one of many factors that a patient and their GP consider in the referral decision, along with clinical expertise, availability and location. Ultimately, we want to ensure more private health insurance patients and their GPs get the information they need to make informed treatment decisions. Informed decision-making benefits all parties in the Australian healthcare system.”
HealthShare has recently commenced the implementation of its refresh program which is delivering new and improved architecture and design across the platform.
The first stage delivered in late 2019 is the practitioner profile refresh that has been informed by data and user heat map analysis, along with health stakeholder guidance as we aim to deliver more value with our partners and keep focused on HealthShare’s mission to deliver better health.
PHIs with the Specialist and Ancillary Find a Provider search tools powered by HealthShare also get the benefit of the profile design refresh through their PHI-branded environment.
For further information please contact:
Ben Johnston, Manager, Client Product Solutions