MDsave Is Saving My Life

In just two years, Bonnie racked up thousands of dollars in medical fees as she searched for answers to her health issues. She finally received a diagnosis—Lyme disease. Now, she faces a lifetime of medical bills. Thankfully, she found MDsave and can afford the routine care she desperately needs.

Meet Bonnie

“Over the past two years, I’ve spent so much of my own money on healthcare. I'm self-employed and self-insured. I have Lyme disease/Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, so there's no cure for what I have. But if it wasn't for this company, I'd be sitting here worrying that my kidneys and my liver were shutting down and I’d be constantly worrying about whether I needed to go to the Emergency Room.

And there’s so much going on right now. I mean, I’ve got a family member in a nursing home who has [COVID-19] and it’s just, it’s tragic. But this business, MDsave, is saving my life. And I know that success for a small business like MDsave is all about word of mouth, so that’s why I’m happy to share my story. I mean, word of mouth is how my business [a professional drapery installation company] has survived here in Chattanooga. I've never advertised one day in my life and yet we’re successful. I know, it's amazing! It's just good people. But these past two years? They’ve been the hardest of my life.” 

A Search for Answers

“I have a lot of friends that are in the medical field who tried to help me on my healthcare journey, but they still had to charge me a fortune and couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. I mean, all they could do was put their hands up in the air and shrug, saying ‘We don't know what’s going on! We've done everything, every blood test, and we don’t know. But here’s what you owe!’ I'm not joking. So many fees in just two years! They just couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

I didn't want to go to the Mayo Clinic. I didn't want to go to Johns Hopkins. And had I gone there, they still wouldn’t have figured out what it was. They would have just sent me home on an antibiotic and an IV drip. 

But something was wrong. I knew it. And eventually, after we did numerous tests and scans and everything, they finally said, ‘It's Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever!’ And I was just like, ‘Okay, well, what do I do next?’ It’s just so hard to get straight answers about what to do, even once you’ve been diagnosed.

Oh, and that's another thing! Lyme and these tick-borne illnesses are being so misdiagnosed right now. We've got to get to Washington on it! People are dying every day not knowing they have Lyme. They think they have fibromyalgia, but they don't have fibromyalgia. They have Lyme; they have a tick-borne illness that is infecting their body with bacteria. It's scary. It’s just scary. But MDsave makes it less scary. This company is amazing. [It’s] giving me peace of mind; I know that if a doctor wants a test, I can go to Tennova and use MDsave.”

Out of Pocket and Nearly Out of Hope

“But back to what I was saying—after I found out what was going on, I started seeing a new doctor and that was where I first heard about MDsave. I had been paying [this doctor] a lot of money out of pocket because she’s self-pay only, but she knows what I have and how I can deal with it so that I can live a decent life. She can’t cure it or anything, you know, but she can help you get it under control. 

And [this doctor] knew my predicament. I can't live in my house. I've had to move out of my home that I built with my husband 20 years ago. I raised my children there. But at some point, mold grew, and I developed a mold infection from the house and the mold infection turned into an autoimmune disorder because of the tick bite. So long story short, I can never go back in my home again and I'm going to have to sell it. 

For now, I'm living in an apartment in downtown Chattanooga to run my husband’s business. I mean, my whole life has been turned upside down because of this illness. And what we're dealing with financially, too. I mean, I'm gonna have to sell the house, and you can't sell a home like that—you’ve got to spend the money to fix it first. And that’s especially hard when you've got as many things going on as I do.”

Finding MDsave

“Anyways, I called the office and told [the assistant] that I was going to have to have another round of blood work done. And she said ‘We want you to have this, this and this done.’ And I said, ‘Well, where I’ve been getting my labs done now is ridiculous!’ They can’t just stick my arm. You just sit there for hours. They don't even know the prices of the tests; they just give you lump sums as estimates. It’s not specific to what you actually need, and then you just end up getting billed a totally different amount in the end. I needed a better option.

So [the assistant] asked me if I had heard of MDsave. And when I said ‘No,’ she goes, ‘Well, I’ll send an order over to the hospital and get you all the information you need, and we’ll make it happen.’ She told me that [MDsave] was an amazing program that I could call and get exact pricing for the tests I needed. And she noted that she wasn’t trying to sell me anything, but it didn’t matter to me even if she was because she was right on target! MDsave was exactly what I needed.”

Putting the “Care” Back in Healthcare

“And you know what? I think that says a lot about a doctor. [This practice] isn’t just taking my money for all these supplements and stuff; instead, [it’s] helping me get the best prices I can find. They want me to live, you know? They want me to thrive. That’s hard to find anymore. But guess what? You can find those people at MDsave, with the employees and the people that use MDsave. They’re all genuine, caring people. And for so many to be in one place? It’s rare.

I just cannot tell you how badly I wish I had known about [MDsave] two years ago. If I had, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in now financially. You know, I went to get my labs done somewhere else, before I found MDsave, and I spent seven hours there and they couldn’t even draw my blood. And then they were going to charge me $1,000 for a test that MDsave only charged me $63 for! I'm not joking. It’s just gouging! And it’s so unfair. Just so unfair to the American people that are trying to work and make a living and just, well, survive now with the [pandemic].

Thankfully, [MDsave] is focused on taking care of the customer. [MDsave] is all about taking care of that person that could be dying; the person that doesn’t know if they're going to live six months or three months or if they're going to live to see tomorrow. [MDsave is] giving them peace of mind. And a place where they can say, ‘Well, I can afford $63. Thank goodness, since I can't afford $1,000!’

It is a beautiful, beautiful thing to know there are people out there that care about their patients. You just have no idea how special MDsave is until you use it yourself. [This company] has done so much for me.”

Want to hear more? Read the rest of Bonnie’s story here !