Jean's work

[Guest guest]

Jean's post from yesterday just keeps tumbling around in my mind. Something important is going on in Maine.is doing something in Maine, that is quietly revolutionary: Finding labs and imaging facilities that will provide these services to her patients at fees that are more affordable. She knows the places that provide the quality of service she demands for her patients and will offer transparent prices. Without a middle man to broker the deals. Brilliant work-around to what looked like the only game in town, the automatic referral to the big hospital center. These services are huge money makers for hospital centers. But they can't even tell how much that colonoscopy will cost her patient. What a concept. The primary care doc, finding the best quality care for her patients, requiring these mega profit centers to be answerable to the patient and primary care provider. It takes work, but is developing relationships that ultimately benefit her patients. That's putting primary back into primary care. Way to go. Rock the revolution. K. I concur. This is just another industry spawned by the desire to dip a toe into the revenue stream generated by healthcare in order to divert a trickle. The revenue stream is there, it's huge, which is why it attracts so many toe-dippers. We gotta ask ourselves:Will this help our patients get the care they need when they want it?Will this help us remain solvent so than we can be there for our patients?Will this help or harm the relationship of patient and healer?Will this introduce yet one more middleman?Does this further commoditize healthcare?Is healthcare a commodity?Are care and concern for our patients things that can be packaged up into 'quantums' of commodities? Katheenstart up. I for one wouldn't hold my breath OR invest.......... Reminds me of the "discount service" request I get every once in awhile where the intermediary will be sure you "get your payment" if you give them $10-20. Matt in Western PA Re: Medi Bid http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/prnewswire/press_releases/California/2010/01/22/CG41865 snip/snipWhile reformers talk about allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines, MediBid enables them to get medical care across state lines. By allowing doctors, not a third party, to set rates, people benefit from a competitive, market-driven environment."The truth is that most American problems are cured by the people, not the government," says Weber. "Heavy bureaucracy interferes with the practice of medicine. This is bad for patients, doctors and the American economy."A privately held Delaware corporation, MediBid sees a tremendous opportunity from increased focus on the free-market principles it supports."The American people want choice, transparency, privacy and quality," said Weber. "These values are the foundation of MediBid.""MediBid is designed to be an environment where free-market principles can work uninhibited by politics," continued Weber. "MediBid provides access to medical care with transparency in cost. The result: health care the way it is meant to be."Launched on January 1, 2010, the company has already seen a flurry of activity from patients seeking bids from medical practitioners.About MediBidMediBid.com is an interactive marketplace that empowers cash paying patients to seek medical care from doctors, hospitals, and facilities locally and around the world. MediBid's founders share an unrelenting drive to change the status quo in the field of healthcare financing. Patients who use MediBid's uncompromisingly unique, highly secure, needs-matching technology can acquire the best cost-to-value services anywhere. Locke, MD