MDsave

mdsave.com

MDsave provides a single online location for consumers to research, compare, and purchase medical services with total cost transparency. MDsave has announced the addition of laboratory/pathology services to its medical service listings. With the proliferation of high deductible health plans, the push for price transparency is a hot topic. MDsave, a Brentwood, TN based healthcare startup, is aiming to be an “Expedia of health care”. MDsave is the first e-commerce company to offer a single online resource for consumers to research, compare, and purchase healthcare services at significant discounts. Launched June 2012, MDsave is already in 3 large metro markets and likely to expand to another 4 this year. MDsave is in partnership with SSM Healthcare Oklahoma, parent organization to St Anthony Hospital. The partnership encompasses more than 225 healthcare providers across 20 locations and over 200 procedures and services that include MRIs, flue shots, CT scans, and specialty visits. With the current challenges in the healthcare marketplace, this couldn’t come at a better time for St. Anthony’s patients and the Oklahoma City community. Because an individual can purchase medical procedures and services directly from physicians, MDSave eliminates the complexity that many are currently experiencing with health insurance exchanges. Also, with thousands of Americans temporarily finding themselves with canceled health plans, MDSave helps these individuals to immediately save on their current pressing and preventive healthcare needs. Over the long term, as government leaders work through these challenges and more Americans sign up for high-deductible plans, the need for reducing out-of-pocket costs will only increase. MDsave is also in partnership with Weatherford Regional Medical Center outside of Fort Worth, whose parent company is Community Health Systems, one of the nation’s leading hospital systems. Weatherford currently offers imaging services and has just added all of its lab/pathology services as well. Outpatient surgeries and physician office visits will be added to the listing soon. MDsave’s unique bundling technology makes medical procedures transparent, shoppable, and instantly transactable. Through MDsave’s patented collection software, patients pay one upfront price for prospective or retrospective care, and payment is automatically distributed to all bundle participants within 4 days. For example, an MRI would typically cost a patient without insurance $2,074.77, while a patient with a high deductible plan would pay $1,231.96. By researching and booking through MDSave, that same patient could get an MRI at Weatherford Regional Medical Center for $425, resulting in a more than 65 percent savings. A patient who needs an X-ray would typically pay $181.26 without insurance and $107.66 with a high deductible plan. Through MDSave, he or she could pay $82 at Weatherford, resulting in a more than 23 percent savings. The typical CT scan would cost an uninsured patient $1,374.53 and a high-deductible patient $816.41. An MDSave user could book and get the scan for $350 at Weatherford, at more than 57 percent savings. MDsave announced its latest partnership in the Nashville market in April. In an effort to bring more consumers greater access to colonoscopies, AMSURG Corp. and MDSave are launching a pilot program to introduce bundled pricing for the procedure to two Nashville-area surgery centers. Associated Endoscopy in Hermitage and St. Thomas Medical Group Endoscopy Center in Nashville will offer a fixed cost for the procedure to a high deductible, self-pay, and under-insured patients at a lower rate than those individuals would typically pay. Those who are insured under the Affordable Care Act’s healthcare exchange marketplace will also be eligible for the program. Consumers can access these savings through the MDsave website, www.MDSave.com. Experts recommend colonoscopies for everyone aged 50 and above, and the pilot program will create an option for patients who might otherwise be deterred by the idea that a colonoscopy is financially out of reach. Bundled pricing means that qualified patients will pay a single, set price for all costs associated with the procedure. Without bundled pricing, these patients would receive multiple bills for charges like facility fees and anesthesia fees, which can be confusing and lead to unexpected costs for the patient. This marks only the second time that colonoscopies have been offered with completely bundled pricing – the first being the MDsave partnership with DDSI, a gastroenterology center in Oklahoma City. Going one step further, this program includes any and all diagnostic procedures that take place during the colonoscopy, such as biopsies, in the bundled price. These procedures are not always covered by insurance when a screening colonoscopy is ordered. The average cost of a colonoscopy in Nashville is $5,175 for uninsured patients and $3,583 for those with a high deductible. With the MDSave partnership, Associated Endoscopy and the St. Thomas Medical Group Endoscopy Center are able to reduce those fees to $1,795 for patients who qualify, representing a significant saving to consumers.