When healthspottr asked Tenzing founder Jamo Rubin to describe the mission of his third and latest healthcare venture, Rubin responded by spamming us with multiple copies of David Goldhill's thoughtful, and exhaustive, article in the September issue of The Atlantic. "He captures it PERFECTLY," Dr. Rubin wrote in an emphatic email. (If you haven't yet read Goldhill's piece, do so tonight.)

Tenzing Health seeks to address many of the problems with the healthcare system that Goldhill lays out very clearly. The one that stuck for healthspottr is three-quarters of the way down on page two:

"America has built a health-care system with incentives [that] favor complexity, and discourage transparent competition based on price or quality. That result in a generational pyramid scheme rather than sustainable financing. And  that—most important—remove consumers from our irreplaceable role as the ultimate ensurer of value... These are the impersonal forces, I’ve come to believe, that explain why things have gone so badly wrong in health care, producing the national dilemma of runaway costs and poorly covered millions."

Tenzing seeks to re-introduce "personal forces" to the healthcare system.

This means more than merely giving Tenzing members a Sherpa to guide them through the healthcare maze -- although, as we've said, we like this high-touch feature a lot.  (The company name derives from the famed Nepalese Sherpa who ascended Everest with Hillary in 1953.)

Founded barely three months ago, Tenzing's big idea, says Dr. Rubin,  is to give consumers the opportunity to personalize their health care portfolio,  but without the pain of having to "pick 'n pack" that portfolio for themselves, off a nascent retail healthcare exchange website (the old Carol.com) Tenzing will give consumers the power to choose their services based on price, or business model, care modality or something else all together. Then Tenzing does the picking, the packing, and the un-packing for them.

On the front end, it works like a matching service. Say you want a direct practice primary care physician. You're willing spend pocket money to get it, but you still have a budget. Tenzing will find, (or facilitate) a mid-market concierge doctor to fit your needs. Maybe you need a special endoscopy procedure. Not all clinics have the right gear. Tenzing will find one near you that does, and get you an appointment -- without weeks if waiting.

How will Tenzing execute this?

On the back end, it will be a scale play.  Tenzing will use the leverage of its large member co-op to negotiate for access to a range of services, and at competitive prices. Providers, in turn,  will use Tenzing as a "lead generator" to new customers. (Tenzing delivers this service to doctors through its companion-entity, Ascend.) This gives Tenzing further bargaining power, and is what will make it possible for the company to "facilitate" price-competitive direct practice care to its members.

No longer unencumbered by the pyramid scheme of insurance actuaries, or the walled gardens of employer health plans, Tenzing aims to get for consumers what they want form the healthcare system, and on the terms that they want it.   No more struggling to find a doctor. No more phone fights with billing agents over your "up-coded" invoices. Your Tenzing “Sherpa” will handle such hassles. 

"We’re dot-connectors we don't offer anything other than the ability to listen to what you want, and get it for you," says Dr. Rubin. Or, as Goldhill might say, consumers will be returned to their role as the ultimate ensurer of value."

Tenzing launched its first pilot in June at St. Luke's Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. While only anecdotal, the results impress.

Monty Breechen, 54, is a resident chaplain at St. Luke's. In January, Breechen spent ten days in the intensive care unit (ICU) following an acute case of pancreatitis. "It's kind of like having a small grenade go off in your stomach," Breechen says. His life that last seven months has been nothing but follow-up. Breechen has five doctors, and says he averages one doctor visit, and one procedure each week. Imagine the hassle.

Then, in June, Breechen joined the Tenzing pilot. Breechen was matched to a Tenzing associate, named Nancy who immediately took over the mechanics of managing Breechen's care. When he needed special endoscopy or an MRI, Nancy  finds the right provider for him, and books him.

He no longer has to guess about which doctor or clinic or lab is the best place to go to for his care, and he, seldom spends more then ten minutes waiting in a doctor's office. (Tenzing uses its heft to guarantee that its members are seen quickly, too.)  Breechen recently had a billing issue with a doctor. He handed it over to Nancy and all of sudden the bills were paid . "She made sure they had the right coding in there," Breechen says.

Where once Breechen felt burdened by his care management, now he feels able to focus on getting healthy. "It creates a feeling that you’re not in this alone. You have an advocate who can go forward with you when you’re lost [in the system] and make things easier. While the responsibility for your own care is still there, but the burden is not as heavy."

Breechen is leavening San Antonio next month. He says he's worried about living in place where services like this don't exist. "I do not want to not have this advocacy in my corner. It’s that critical."

So far so good. We'll see if Tenzing can foster the same positive outcomes, on a larger scale. Its pilot will expand in San Antonio with additional hospitals this fall.