Simplee, a California personal health care management software company, has launched a private beta version of its online health site, backed by $1.5 million in seed money from unnamed angel investors, The San Francisco Business Times reports. Aetna, Anthem, Cigna and other health insurers reportedly support Simplee’s business model.
The privately held company in Palo Alto was created by industry veterans including former executives at Shopping.com and EMC, the paper reports.
Details of the various tools and services will be announced later this year.
Officials said the site is compliant with federal HIPPA privacy guidelines and uses security infrastructure from VeriSign, McAfee and TRUSTe. Health plans including Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Delta Dental, United Healthcare, Vision Service Plan (VSP) and WellPoint reportedly support the project.
Simplee says the new site is designed to let consumers “easily understand and manage their health care expenses,” by automatically linking to insurance data and turning it into a “clean, easy-to-use dashboard for tracking and controlling spending, reducing paperwork, expanding health care options and saving money.”
Near-term plans also call for a “comparison shopping and recommendation engine” to help consumers evaluate medical providers and services based on quality and price, and a separate tool for “choosing the best insurance plan,” based on the consumer’s previous consumption patterns, plus other enhancements, officials said.
