Priceline burst onto the scene in 1997 with its name-your-own-price service that let people state how much they are willing to pay for hotel rooms, flights and other travel services. The concept has since been tried on groceries and gasoline. Now some people say it makes sense to offer health care the same way.
“I think it’s great,” says Joel White, president of health care advocacy group Clear Choices. “Too often in health care we’re stuck in the past.”
The future, according to White and others, is a world in which health care is more competitive and transparent. They see services that allow people to select their price as a tool to fight back against what some say are arbitrary pricing models within the health care industry. “It gives more control to the consumer,” White says.
[Read: 7 Ways to Keep Your Health Care Costs in Check.]
“Pick your price” health care in action. For Briana McPartlan of Toluca Lake, California, the decision to use a Priceline-esque method of finding health care had less to do with getting a deal and more to do with getting the services she needed. “I had gotten into a car accident,” McPartlan says. The ear, nose and throat doctor treating her broken nose wanted to see a CT scan, but her insurance required that be ordered by her primary care doctor. “The next available appointment was a month and a half away.”
Rather than wait for that appointment, McPartlan turned to ZendyHealth, which has trademarked the phrase “pick your price” for its health care bidding platform. She answered a couple of questions, selected how much she could afford and within five minutes, a health care provider accepted her offer and later called to schedule an appointment for the following week. “It was really, really convenient,” McPartlan says. What’s more, the facility she visited was only a mile from her house and offered a clean and friendly atmosphere.
[Read: 12 Simple Ways to Save Money on Health Care.]
A win-win for consumers and physicians? ZendyHealth isn’t the first website to offer this type of service. MediBid launched a similar platform back in 2014 and is still in operation. Other companies, such as the now-defunct DealWell, have come and gone.
Despite the mixed success of previous companies, ZendyHealth founder and chief medical officer Vish Banthia feels confident this is a concept whose time has come. He is also quick to point out that the type of bidding facilitated by his website is nothing new. “I’ve been in practice for 10 years, and we’ve seen patients negotiating their prices offline in an inefficient way,” he says.
Banthia says ZendyHealth simply provides a method for consumers to quickly connect with doctors who are willing to negotiate. Beyond that, using a Web platform makes the process simple and easy. A slide calculator on the site helps consumers understand what is a reasonable price, and minimum thresholds for bids ensure medical offices don’t waste their time wading through lowball pricing requests. “What we’re trying to do is create a win-win solution,” Banthia says. Consumers get lower prices while providers can fill slots on their schedule that may otherwise go empty.
Some doctors urge caution. However, not everyone is sold on the idea of consumers bidding for health care services. The American Medical Association, in an emailed statement, says, “Venues for introducing patients to a choice in health care should not be governed solely by cost.” The group, whose membership includes physicians, residents and medical students, goes on to add, “Concern for the quality of care should be a top consideration for patients and physicians.”
Banthia agrees that not every form of medical care may be appropriate for the pick-a-price model of service. However, he also adds that to the best of his knowledge, no ZendyHealth user has reported complications related to poor care. “In the U.S., price doesn’t correlate to quality,” he says.
[See: 10 Things You Need to Know About Medicare.]
Best for patients paying with cash. One caveat of pick-a-price health care is that it is designed for consumers paying with cash, not insurance. Most providers accept bids with the understanding they will not be billing insurance companies.
McPartlan, who has health insurance, ended up paying for her CT scan out-of-pocket, but she’s not complaining. “I’m in a position where it’s really hard for me to get an appointment,” she says. Paying out-of-pocket to get care weeks earlier was money well spent in her view.
If sites like ZendyHealth catch on, White says it may be harder for insurers to negotiate discounts. That may seem like a negative, but he says more transparency could drive down prices for everyone in the long run. “Opening the system up to competition is a good thing.”
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Should Health Care Work Like Priceline? originally appeared on usnews.com
