HCF partners with HealthShare to improve patient decision-making

Press Release — October, 2016.

HCF, Australia’s leading not-for-profit health fund, has partnered with digital health platform, HealthShare, to provide members with important tools to help in selecting a care provider.

This innovative partnership – aligning HealthShare’s market-leading practitioner referrals platform with HCF’s extensive data set – will enable general practitioners (GPs) to search for and select the most appropriate and conveniently located specialist participating in the HCF Known Gap and No Gap scheme. The GP can then automatically populate a referral including patient and specialist details.

As a result, patients can discuss with their GPs upfront about being referred to a specialist with no out-of-pocket costs or a known out-of-pocket cost of up to $500, at the location of their choice. Through HealthShare’s consumer portal, HealthShare.com.au, patients also have the option to search for this information themselves to conduct their own research on medical specialists and other allied health professionals.

“As the first health fund to sign up to Referrals by HealthShare, we recognised this clear opportunity to help members find our network doctors earlier in the process so they are empowered to make an informed decision,” said Sheena Jack, HCF’s Chief Strategy Officer.

Referrals by HealthShare is free and available to all Australian GPs via both an integrated solution (into the GP’s clinical software) and a non-integrated solution. The HealthShare platform itself connects half a million monthly users – Australians who are looking for health answers – with local, credible and relevant health practitioners and health information.

“We didn’t hesitate to collaborate with HCF since they share our enthusiasm for leveraging innovation to improve the health and well being of all Australians,” said Rami Weiss, HealthShare’s CEO. “We continue to develop our platform to drive improved efficiencies and transparency in the health ecosystem, and offer patients and practitioners the right information at the right time to make a better-informed health decision.”