Entrepreneur.com ran an article about Steve Case, AOL’s founder, and his latest health care venture. He’s sunk $100,000,000 to create Revolution Health, a website that offers free, comprehensive health and medical information to the public. The article includes a Q&A with Case about his “mission” to improve the health care industry.
I’ll admit that, even though I’m the product of two physicians, I have tried to diagnosis minor medical ailments via WebMD. But even WebMD has a large “this site does not provide medical advice” tagline at the top of their Terms & Conditions. Revolutionhealth.com has a similar disclaimer:
We are not providing medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, or advice about what providers to use.
Now as an attorney, I can appreciate the disclaimer…wonderful work by Revolution Heath’s legal team. But as a health care consumer, I can’t help but think Revolution Health is just another WebMD, but with a fancier name and sexier logo.
Revolution Health lists the following on their website concerning revenue generation:
How we make money
You’ll notice that most of our services are free. So, you may be wondering how we make money.
We make money by selling advertising on revolutionhealth.com. We will always clearly identify advertising and commerce on our site. The fact that certain products and services are advertised on our site or sold through our store is not an endorsement of those products or services and does not influence the editorial content on our site. For more information on our approach to advertising and our editorial process, please read our Advertising policy and Editorial policy.
We also make money through selling memberships to people—either directly or through their employers or organizations—and by selling products through the Revolution Health Store.
Finally, we allow consumers to shop around for health insurance if they need it, through our affiliate RHG Insurance Services LLC, which is a licensed insurance agency. We offer individuals and businesses the opportunity to buy health insurance from certain health insurance companies that we work with. We receive a commission for insurance purchased through us, but we are not an insurance company. We will never share any of your information with insurance companies except when you explicitly authorize us to do so.
So to recap, Revolution Health:
(1) Advertises as providing free health care information.
(2) But does not offer medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or information about which providers to use.
(3) And makes money via advertisements (but does not endorse any of their advertisers), paid memberships (if you want some actual health care advice) and selling insurance (if you want some actual health care).
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate anyone that tries to improve the quality of and access to health care. But I just don’t see the “Revolution” at Revolution Health.
