Open Health Market launches website that allows health care providers to bid directly on medical services for self-insured businesses

A website that serves as a matchmaker between self-insured businesses and health care providers expects to post its first 30 requests from employers next week.

Open Health Market was founded in early 2011 by a doctor in California, a lawyer in New Hampshire and a former benefits manager in Maine. It was designed to cut out the middleman when it comes to health care by allowing employers to submit requests for proposals for a category of medical services and procedures -- knee surgeries, for example, or cardiac care -- and have health care providers submit competing bids.

The website was founded by Don Crandlemire, a Concord, NH lawyer with Dr. Leonard Fromer of Los Angeles and Peter Hayes, former benefits manager at Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford Bros. supermarkets. The group has teamed up with Dallas-based ACAP Health, which consults with employers on strategies to reduce health costs. The company helped make the Open Health Market website more user friendly, and brought in its first batch of employers.

In the next week, 30 Texas corporations that together spend more than $1 billion on health care for more than 100,000 employees and their families will post their requests on Open Health Market, seeking information from primary-care providers, said Dr. Scott Conard, chief medical officer at ACAP Health. After a month, they'll decide which providers they want to hear more from.