Most Health 2.0 startups operate on some variation of the Field of Dreams model, hoping that if they build an innovative new service, patients and doctors will come and use it. A few, however, are making more like Willie Sutton — the fellow who, when asked why he robbed banks, replied, “That’s where the money is” — by convincing insurers to roll out their technology to an established membership base.
One of the first companies to do so is Healthline Networks, a well-funded provider of health-related search technology, which now plans to provide “personalized” search results to Aetna members based in part on their claims history with the giant insurer. It’s an intriguing idea, albeit one that may give rise to an entirely new set of problems. We take a closer look in this post over at VentureBeat LifeScience.
