VisualCalc introduced two new custom web-based consumer tools for health care providers: 1) the VisualCalc Health Plan Comparison Tool; and 2) the VisualCalc Health Treatment Fee Tool. These graphical customer service tools can be deployed on a health care provider’s website for use by its existing and prospective customers.

Both of these tools guide users through an intuitive, step-by-step process to help them make better decisions regarding their health care coverage. These custom tools help health care providers improve customer satisfaction, acquisition and retention, as well as lower their administrative costs.

The VisualCalc Health Plan Comparison Tool helps a health care provider’s existing and prospective customers easily compare different health plans. This comparison can be performed across plans offered by a single health care provider, or across plans offered by a variety of different providers. The tool guides consumers through a series of intuitive web pages to gather information about their family and health care needs, and then provides them with a comparison of the costs and benefits of different plans, along with a recommendation for the best health plan for their needs. The VisualCalc Health Plan Comparison Tool helps consumers make better decisions regarding the best health plans for their specific situation. The tool helps health care providers highlight the features, benefits, and advantages of their health plans, improving their customer relations.

The VisualCalc Health Treatment Fee Tool helps a health care provider’s members estimate the cost of individual treatments before the services are performed. This customer service tool also enables customers to estimate their total health care costs for the upcoming year. Estimates can be developed for both individual and family health plans. The VisualCalc Health Treatment Fee Tool benefits consumers by enabling them to obtain reliable estimates for their health care costs, which, in turn, can help them with their budgeting, tax planning, and HSA account planning. The tool benefits health care providers by enhancing the transparency of their health care fees, a topic that has recently received significant regulatory and industry focus. In addition, because it provides their customers with a valuable source of information, the tool also helps health care providers improve their overall customer satisfaction and retention rates. Finally, as an automated “self service” tool, it also reduces the administrative time and expenses that would normally be required to manually develop these estimates.

Both of these customer service tools are configurable tools that can be easily customized for use by any health care provider. These tools can incorporate a health care provider’s specific information and business rules, including plan types, policy details, fee schedules, etc. The tools can also be customized to incorporate the health care provider’s branding and graphical standards, so that the tools have a consistent “look and feel” with the provider’s website and other marketing properties.

Both of these custom tools also are integrated with interactive, graphical, web-based analytics tool that helps health care providers monitor the effectiveness of these tools across a variety of user segments and usage metrics.

The VisualCalc Health Plan Comparison Tool and VisualCalc Health Treatment Fee Tool are both available and in use by customers today. Pricing varies depending on the number of users and a company’s hosting requirements.