Power to the Patients

MDsave has just been named #152 on the 2018 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies, and we couldn’t be prouder. Not only is it a huge honor, but it means that healthcare in America is changing for the better.

It’s a sign that patients and hospitals alike are sick of a system that leaves 25% of Americans with unaffordable healthcare expenses.

It’s a sign that we, as a nation, are sick of medical debt being the #1 cause of bankruptcy.

It’s a sign that patients and providers are demanding more control over the cost of the care they receive or offer. That they believe in our mission to make healthcare accessible to everyone by changing the way we shop for care.

We’ve come a long way, and we’ve learned a lot about what people need from their healthcare.

Transparency alone isn’t enough.

People want to know what their medical services cost before making a purchase, but knowing the cost isn’t enough. You have to be able to act on that knowledge.

We learned that we needed to give patients transparent prices and a way to act immediately when they made their purchase decision. This is the age of Amazon.com, and people expect point-and-click simplicity and immediacy. So we brought it to healthcare.

Affordability means no surprises.

Being able to afford a medical procedure means being able to afford the services of every provider who participates in your care, from the lab running your tests, to the radiologist reading your scan, to the surgeon holding the scalpel.

Traditionally, if price information was provided at all, only procedure fees were shared – meaning patients didn’t know how many people were involved in caring for them, or what those services cost. You can’t know if you can afford something if you only see a part of the total price.

We realized that it shouldn’t be the patient’s job to know every provider participating in their care. It’s our responsibility to give the patient one, upfront price that they can understand, and ensure that when a patient says they can afford their care, they can afford to pay everyone providing it.

Shoppability lets people make informed decisions.

“When people shop online at sites like Amazon.com, they have more control over their spending because of the ability to compare prices, track order history, and make informed purchase decisions based on a budget,” says Paul Ketchel, MDsave CEO and co-founder. “Putting healthcare into a similar ecommerce environment brings that same dynamic of predictability and transparency to purchasing medical services.”

We’re just getting started.

MDsave is one of America’s fastest growing companies, and we believe that affordable healthcare shouldn’t be a luxury. We’re in 24 states so far and we’re always expanding our network of providers, hospitals, and health systems who share our mission. We believe in transparency. We believe in people. And we believe that we can change healthcare for the good.