Web site based in Vegas helps individuals find insurance

By Marshall Allen

Monday, June 8, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Consumers have grown accustomed to going online to compare airfares, hotel rates and camera prices before buying.

Starting today, a Las Vegas company joins a small group of others that lets you sit at your keyboard and compare the cost of health insurance from different providers.

Insuremonkey.com — as the lighthearted name implies — wants to take the fear and intimidation out of buying health insurance, CEO Alex Rivlin said.

Consumers input their ZIP code, age and a few details, such as whether they smoke, and see a list of insurance policies available for comparison and purchase.

For example, a 37-year-old nonsmoking man in Las Vegas could have a policy for as little as $80 a month from Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield. Of course, that low-price policy comes with a $15,000 deductible.

Consumers who don’t know what a deductible is can consult Insuremonkey’s online glossary: “A deductible is an out-of-pocket expense that an insured person must pay for before their health insurance provider pays the costs.”

A $15,000 deductible stinks!

A comparison on Insuremonkey.com shows that the same person could get a policy with a $250 deductible from CeltiCare for $527 a month.

Customers also can speak to “Insurance Einsteins” for more information.

Patients still need to apply with the insurance companies before they can purchase the plans, and each company determines eligibility requirements.

Rivlin said he started the company because bricks-and-mortar health insurance brokers do not focus on the individual market.

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University Medical Center’s outpatient cancer program, which became a national embarrassment for abandoning patients after it was featured on the CBS-TV news show “60 Minutes,” will offer more services when it reopens in January — which will help it become more financially viable.

Nevada Cancer Institute, the nonprofit research center that aborted its contract with UMC in late 2008, just before the hospital closed the program, will establish a satellite location at the public hospital. The new site will allow the Cancer Institute to provide the same level of service to patients at UMC as it provides at its Summerlin campus.

Hospital officials canceled the program because state budget cutbacks made finances tight and outpatient oncology was a money loser — uninsured patients had no way to pay for chemotherapy drugs, which can cost thousands of dollars per dose.

The new program, called Nevada Cancer Institute at UMC, will add radiation oncology services to become financially viable. Radiation treatments bring in higher reimbursements, which can offset the losses from the chemotherapy treatments, said Dr. John Ruckdeschel, the new CEO of Nevada Cancer Institute.

The Cancer Institute will lease space at UMC to run the program, and the hospital will earn revenue from patients who are admitted or who need diagnostic tests.

Perhaps most important, patients will have continuity of care. Some patients went without services when UMC closed the program, though those gaps were closed by other doctors stepping in to provide care, Ruckdeschel said.

UMC CEO Kathy Silver said the new arrangement will be better than before.

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The UMC kidney transplant program, which was in danger of closing because of a higher than expected number of patient deaths, has received full certification from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Medicare threatened to take away the hospital’s funding in 2008, which would have made the program, the only one of its kind in the state, financially unsustainable. UMC was on probation until this month.

Hospital officials said UMC is expected to perform about 60 transplants this year. There are about 200 people on the waiting list.

Silver, UMC’s CEO, said the clean bill of health from Medicare speaks well of the commitment of the hospital’s staff. Now she’s looking to expand the program to include pancreas and liver transplants.