This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Bidding online for elective surgery: is this the future of medicine?
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Consumers who are seeking elective, non-emergent surgical procedures can post a request for surgery that will in turn be made available to qualified surgeons. Interested physicians may respond within 72 hours by posting their credentials, qualifications, practice philosophy, many other attributes important to the patient and surgery fees. This reverse-auction online exchange provides consumers with one-stop search and selection for qualified surgeons with a click of the mouse. Physicians participate in a totally blind bidding process. They cannot see the names or amounts offered by other physicians or surgeons.
Medicine Online Inc., a developer of online health care sites, has created MedicineOnline.com, a bid-for-surgery service that enables prospective patients to take charge of their own health care when seeking elective, aesthetic medical procedures in areas such as cosmetic surgery, dentistry, ophthalmology and podiatry. This service is an Internet-based system to match up patients with a physician who offers the best combination of credentials, qualifications, location and price for a desired medical procedure.
“The reaction to this from the medical community is very positive,” Mike Sussman, chief operating officer of Medicine Online Inc., said. “There are more than 200 board-certified physicians who believe in the Internet and have registered with Bid For Surgery so far, and believe it gives them expanded sales and marketing channels. It also gives them reach into a market that they may not have been able to reach before. And patients are willing to travel for elective procedures.”
How online bidding works
Consumers seeking an elective procedure may anonymously post their desired medical procedure online. The patient is required to complete a personal history/clinical data form, which requests generic, demographic and social history information, in addition to procedure-specific information. A physician specialist in that area, according to Mr. Sussman, has designed each procedure-specific form.
Physicians respond to patient inquiries within 72 hours with a quote for their total fee as well as background information. These bids are valid for 7 days, during which patients can evaluate the doctors who respond. When the auction period ends, the patient decides which doctor to visit for a free consultation.
“During that 72-hour period, it is a totally blind bidding process,” Mr. Sussman said. “The physician or dentist who is responding to the request for the [specific procedure] will not see the names or the amounts offered by the other physicians or surgeons. They will only see the number of bids on the procedure and the location of those offering.”
Though physicians do know the number of bids posted and the geographical area in which the bidders practice, during the 72-hour reverse-auction process doctors may post multiple bids if they choose to lower their price. Physicians promise a price for a specific procedure, knowing that others are bidding against them for their business.
For now, this service is free to potential patients and their doctors. In the future, the company plans to implement a charge to the consumer based on the price of the completed procedure.
Educated choices?
“We provide a lot of resource information for the patients to empower themselves to take control of their health and to give them the information they need to make an important decision,” Mr. Sussman said, “especially how to look for a surgeon and how to evaluate credentials.”
The Web site provides links to the American Board of Medical Specialties to allow prospective patients to check board certification. Links to state medical boards also are provided, in addition to instructions on what to look for in a surgeon.
For physicians to participate in the bidding, they must provide Medicine Online with their professional license number, Drug Enforcement Administration registration number, office practice address and other information on their practice and their credentials.
“We don’t verify physicians’ credentials,” Mr. Sussman said. “We offer the consumer a resource for which they can check the credentials. We give instructions on how to do that and what to look for.” Medicine Online gives the consumer some information on what type of background and training a specific physician should have to perform a specific procedure.
“Most patients are paying out of pocket and are very price sensitive, so they shop,” Mr. Sussman said. “But they also want to know that they are dealing with a qualified physician. From the information that is presented by the physicians and from the background information that we also provide, that type of comparison can be made.”
Since its launch in March, more than 200 physicians have joined Medicine Online’s bidding system to service the approximate 650 consumer bid requests.
Editor’s note:
Anything that strengthens the individual patient’s ability to find a highly qualified physician/surgeon to care for his or her health needs is worth supporting. Yet, I fear that bidding online for medical or surgical care will focus too much on price and not enough on the other key parameters of quality care.
In my opinion, the increasing commercialization and commoditization of medical care devalues the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. The establishment of a doctor-patient relationship with a caring, committed, competent physician has been the very foundation of medical care for centuries. Preferably, this physician lives close to the patient’s home when very unique specialty care is required. The cost of the care has always been secondary. Physicians, as members of a learned profession, have classically agreed to charge their patients a fair price and to provide the best possible care to each individual, regardless of his or her ability to pay.
Government, corporate and now Internet activities that prioritize cost over competence, compassion and commitment to quality care make me uncomfortable. I do not believe medical care that is only a commodity to be sold at the lowest price is in the best interest of the patient. As a physician I have pledged to practice in the best interest of my patients, and I, for one, will not participate in online bidding for patients.
Richard L. Lindstrom, MD
Primary Care Optometry News Editorial Board member
For Your Information:
- Mike Sussman can be reached at 18800 Delaware St., Ste. 650, Huntington Beach, CA 92648; (714) 848-0444; fax: (714) 841-6504; e-mail: msussman@mol.net. Mr. Sussman is chief operating officer of Medicine Online Inc.