Goodbill Wins TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 Award

Goodbill has been selected as one of TIME’s 2023 Best Inventions, an annual list that celebrates the most groundbreaking innovations in the world.

The list, released Tuesday, showcases 200 products, software and services that solve compelling problems by “changing how we live, work, play, and think about what’s possible,” TIME’s editors wrote.

Goodbill was highlighted as a top invention in the Productivity category, which recognizes innovations that streamline the way people work. “American hospital bills can be a headache, both to decipher and to pay. But upload a bill to Goodbill, and its software – which draws on public hospital data – catches unnecessary tests and incorrect codes,” TIME's editors wrote.

Award winners are sourced from nominations by TIME’s editors and correspondents from around the world, as well as an application process, and are chosen for their originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.

The award reflects the strength of the company’s vision and team, said Goodbill CEO and co-founder Patrick Haig.

“I’m so excited and honored that Goodbill was selected as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023,” Haig said. “Patients have suffered from a healthcare billing system that is opaque, unfair and unaffordable for far too long, and it’s testament to our incredible and passionate team that we’ve been able to make headway on tackling this critical and tragic issue.”

Goodbill launched nationally in mid-2022 as the brainchild of Haig and co-founder Ian Sefferman, who anticipated that a slew of new federal regulations – to improve hospital price transparency and patient access to records – would unleash data that could be used to empower patients to better understand their medical charges.

The company quickly built a strong track record with its negotiation service offering, which helps patients lower their emergency room, surgery and childbirth bills at any of more than 6,000 hospitals across the country. Goodbill finds coding errors, medically unnecessary charges, and inflated pricing – then negotiates directly with the hospital. It wins negotiations on one in every two bills, on average, saving patients 30%.

Goodbill also offers a line of solutions for plans and payers to help self-funded employers, third-party administrators and brokers save money on hospital claims before any money has been paid out.

Goodbill tackles these claims from multiple angles to capture more savings: Licensed coders and clinicians cross-check claims against provider notes to catch not only coding errors but also medically unnecessary charges; and, when members are eligible for financial assistance, Goodbill helps them get their claims partially or entirely waived through hospital charity care programs.

Haig says he’s optimistic about what’s ahead for both Goodbill and the industry. Growing consumer awareness about rising medical costs, along with a shifting regulatory landscape, gives him reason to be optimistic that the tide is finally turning in favor of the patient.

“When we set out to put more power in the patient’s hands, we knew it was going to be an uphill battle,” he said. “We’re starting to glimpse what it can look like when regulations, data, and technology come together to level the playing field for patients.”

You can read more about why Goodbill was selected as a TIME 2023 Best Invention at Time.com or in the upcoming print issue of Time Magazine.

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