Transparent Health Network Launches Zuora Billing in Thirty Days, Delivering Healthcare Services to Millions

THN embraces the Subscription Economy to expand from 3 to 35 metro areas in next year to revolutionize the American healthcare system with access to affordable healthcare

Redwood City, CA — March 1, 2012

News

  • Zuora, the subscription commerce, billing, and payments leader, today announced that Transparent Health Network (THN), which provides access to contracted rates for medical care for uninsured consumers, is using Zuora’s subscription commerce platform to rapidly grow its consumer membership — already tripling its base. THN is using Zuora to expand from 3 to 35 metro areas in only a year, while simplifying billing for its multiple pricing models across numerous market channels and customer groups.
  • With the American healthcare insurance system in a state of perpetual crisis, millions of individuals are unable to access affordable coverage. THN provides three essential services for consumers who lack health insurance: access to greatly discounted, contracted rates for healthcare products and services; transparent fees so members know how much they have to pay for health care services; and end-to-end customer service to help patients obtain effective care.
  • Zuora helps THN compete effectively for members by helping to reduce its cost of service. Zoura’s flexibility enables THN to provide optimal membership pricing solutions without requiring hours of coding or complicated tracking for members acquired through various broker, group and direct-to-consumer channels, all of whom have different requested payment types.
  • The cloud-based Zuora solution lets just a handful of employees build and scale THN’s commerce capabilities easily, letting them avoid investing in IT specialists and instead concentrate on the critical business at hand.

Building New Market and Pricing Models for Healthcare

  • With millions of American consumers left uncovered by the nation’s health insurance industry, THN launched a new type of business to make medical services available on a more transparent and affordable basis. The success of its model depends on the ability to optimize the rates negotiated with healthcare providers and the fees charged to its members to keep patient costs as low as possible. THN’s previous commerce system lacked the flexibility to build, test, report on and bill according to pricing structures developed for specific market channels.
  • The challenges THN faced illustrate a key shortcoming of transaction-based ERP systems. While participants in its provider network bill patients for specific services on a transaction basis, THN itself operates as a membership organization with a single recurring charge—a type of customer relationship for which traditional ERP systems are poorly suited. THN’s subscription commerce model called for a technology platform designed explicitly for the Subscription Economy. The company turned to Zuora, because Zuora alone could handle their subscriptions, billings and payments.

Optimal Pricing Flexibility and Commerce Efficiency Support Low-Cost Healthcare

  • With Zuora, THN can build, test, report on and bill different subscription fees across a broad range of customer types, helping it balance these fees with the rates charged by its provider network to keep the ultimate cost to the consumer as low as possible. The ability to rapidly iterate its initial commerce model, adjusting it as member volume rise, as well as to respond to emerging regulatory and market requirements is helping the company achieve strong early performance with a clear growth path.
  • The efficiency of the Zuora solution helps THN keep its operational costs low. A small team can manage a high volume of data and transactions, and the company has taken advantage of Zuora to easily integrate new payment capabilities into its system, including accepting member fees paid by credit card, EFT, check and deposits into its bank account.

Commentary

  • “Out-of-control medical costs put both the lives and the financial well-being of countless consumers at risk every day. Our mission is to make healthcare accessible to our members at reasonable prices by developing our own innovative model for commerce and customer service. Zuora helps us meet the pricing needs of our market by being as efficient and flexible as possible with the subscriber relationships we’re establishing,” said Kathleen Weissenberger, Vice President of Sales and Marketing of THN. “Just as importantly, Zuora gave us the support we needed to hit the ground running and now is helping us grow rapidly. We know that whatever new markets or directions we might take on, Zuora can support us without ever missing a beat.”
  • “Our severely dysfunctional healthcare marketplace is in desperate need of innovation in the way consumers access and pay for medical services,” said Shawn Price, President of Zuora. “In creating a more efficient and transparent new model to connect patients with providers, THN is demonstrating what can be achieved through a subscription model supported by Zuora. The scale and flexibility of the subscription economy is giving American healthcare a much needed breath of fresh air.”

About Transparent Health Network

Transparent Health Group was founded by a team of entrepreneurs who believed that everyone—regardless of employment status, age or medical history should have access to quality health care at affordable prices. Health care should be simple—patients dealing directly with providers with no middle man processing claims or making medical denials. Due to its desire to provide the highest quality network possible, Transparent Health built their own network to avoid being part of a prepackaged network with providers unaware they were part of the plan. Providers and medical service companies in Transparent Health’s network share a commitment to provide the working uninsured and under-insured with quality health care at affordable prices. Additionally, the Transparent Health Network puts health care decision-making back where it belongs: in the hands of caring providers who can discuss treatment options with their patients without concerns about pre-authorization, referrals or denials from a disinterested third party. Transparent Health Network recognizes that doctors and specialists are only part of an individual’s medical care, therefore they have included Radiology, Laboratory services, Pharmacy, Dental and Vision services, as well as access to a 24-Hour Nurse Hotline and Hospital Advocate program.

About Zuora, Inc.

Zuora is the global leader in subscription commerce and billing, helping companies in every industry transition to the Subscription Economy. Enterprise leaders and high-growth companies alike use Zuora’s multi-tenant cloud platform to launch, scale, and monetize their subscription services. Zuora’s applications help subscription businesses with pricing, quoting, orders, billing, payments, and renewals. Built from the ground up by SaaS industry veterans from Salesforce.com, PayPal, and WebEx, Zuora services innovative customers like Informatica, Tata Communications, Box.net, Ning, Xplornet, Ustream and Reed Business Information. To learn more about Zuora, please visit zuorainternprd.wpengine.com.

October 10, 2014