| The
potential for health savings account (HSA) growth was underscored
in July when AOL co-founder Steve Case and former Secretary
of State Colin Powell announced the formation of a new company,
Revolution Health Group (RHG), devoted to consumer-driven health
care.
Case noted
in a news release, "Health care is a huge industry, representing
one out of six dollars in the entire U.S. economy, but it
is clearly in need of transformative change. Consumers
are frustrated trying to keep themselves and their families
healthy in an increasingly inflexible, inconvenient, inefficient
system."
Innovation, Information Emphasized
RHG plans
to acquire controlling interests in promising, innovative
health care companies and build them for long-term growth.
Areas
to be developed include affordable nurse-provided care at
retail locations; health information to help people find a
doctor or other health care provider and to learn more about
medical issues and conditions; tools for managing health care
finances, especially to help small and mid-sized employers
help their employees; secure, easy-to-use personal health
records; and innovative health coverage offering consumers
new choices in how to pay for their health care.
"We
will put consumers back in the center of the system by giving
them more choice, control, and convenience while building
the first comprehensive, consumer-driven health care company,"
said Case.
Consumer Focus Lauded
Major
investors in RHG include Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape
and AT&T Wireless and former COO of FedEx; John Delaney,
co-founder and CEO of CapitalSource; David Golden, a managing
director of JP Morgan; and Miles Gilburne, former head of
AOL corporate development.
Other
major investors include Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State
and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and founder of America's
Promise: The Alliance For Youth; Frank Raines, former CEO
of Fannie Mae and former head of the U.S. Office of Management
and Budget; Steve Wiggins, founder and former CEO of Oxford
Health Plans; and Jeff Zients, former CEO of The Advisory
Board Company.
"Steve
Case and Revolution Health are bringing new thinking, innovative
services, and a consumer focus to the health sector, and this
is precisely what is needed," said Grace-Marie Turner,
president of The Galen Institute.
The new
company, Turner said, "will create new places for consumers
to get easy access to routine health care, and Steve will
bring his genius in information technology to creating new
ways for consumers to get timely information about health
care cost and quality. The health sector desperately
needs someone with Steve's ideas and resources to usher us
into the era of consumer-directed health care."
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