How I “Take Care of My Own Care” With MDsave

Tonya is a middle school teacher and  former nurse with a family history of breast cancer. When her OBGYN personally recommended MDsave, Tonya realized she could stop worrying about insurance and get the routine care she needed. Now she encourages her friends and family to use MDsave to stay on top of their preventive care.

Meet Tonya

“I’m a middle school teacher and former nurse (I was a nurse before I was a teacher). And so now I teach sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Family and Consumer Science, which encompasses health, sewing, and cooking.

I have four kids; I have a 22-year-old who's getting married soon, a 20-year-old who’s getting married soon, a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. And I'm a single parent, so money is usually an issue for me — especially as a teacher.”

A Radical Solution for Paying Out-Of-Pocket

“I have a family history of breast cancer, so my doctor has me go in every six months to get checked up. Usually in January I get a mammogram and then in August I get a breast MRI. Insurance typically covers the mammogram, but I'm one step away or whatever from qualifying to get the MRI paid for. So until then they cover it, I've just always paid out of pocket for it. 

So for like six years or so I've been doing that. It’s just routine at this point. But this time, when my OBGYN told me I was due for my annual breast MRI, she said, ‘You know, we have this new partner called MDsave that might work well for you.’ So she told me about it and how much I could save by using it, and I thought, ‘Okay…’ But then she says, ‘I just used it!’ And I was so surprised. I said, ‘Wait, you personally used it? Because won’t they just say it’s all said and done and paid for and then come back begging for more money?’ And she said, ‘No, it’s all done! I’ve done it. I paid for my procedure, got my voucher, had my service, and nothing else has ever come out of it. No additional bills.’ So I decided that I was willing to give it a try!”

Stellar Support Service

“I went home to make my [MDsave] purchase online. But I wanted to use some of my HSA funds and some of my personal income, and you can’t do that fully online. So I used the online chat, and then called the [MDsave Healthcare Support Team]. At first I thought, ‘Oh great. I’m gonna be on hold forever!’ But I was barely on hold, if at all! The lady on the phone was so nice and she helped me split the cost [of my MRI] so that I could use some of my HSA and some of my personal money. Lickety split, just like that, done! It was super easy. She gave me my voucher number over the phone, and when I got to my appointment, I started to read off the number I’d been given, but the woman at the hospital goes, ‘Oh, Tonya? I’ve got you here. I don’t need that — you’re good to go!’ So MDsave had spoken to the hospital already and that was so nice of them. I’d been a little curious about whether I was going to get the same quality of care by using [MDsave], but my MRI experience was no different than usual. And I’d always gone to Lakeside Hospital for my imaging, so it was very convenient that MDsave had partnered with them.”

Taking Care of My Care

“I would definitely tell everyone to go to MDsave.com and check it out. Then look into your insurance and see what they will and won't cover, because insurance is just so sporadic. You just never expect… like why wouldn’t they cover whatever it is you need? So I recommend getting out your insurance policy and looking at MDsave. I had no idea there were so many different things you could purchase at MDsave.com. It was actually kind of fun! I just kept thinking, ‘Oh, look! I can get this done, I can get that! With everything in my medical history, with the cancers that afflicted my family and caused so many deaths, sometimes I just think to myself, ‘Gosh, I wish I could just get a clean bill of health. I wish I could go in and just make sure that everything is sound.’ But insurance isn’t going to do that — ever. Insurance will only start covering your care when you start having problems. So it’s nice to know that now I have an inexpensive, or at least reasonably priced, place that I can go to take care of my own care and not have to worry about insurance.”

The Power of Affordable, Preventive Screenings

“There are people out there who have family members who just refuse to get anything done, to see a doctor, even though they might have something they’re worried about. Because insurance won’t cover [the procedure they need], they don’t go in. And that’s just asinine. I understand that most of us don’t have free money laying around, but it's asinine on the insurance’s part. In the long run, they’ll just end up paying more money for this person’s care because they didn’t catch it early.

My fiancé is a black man and obviously comes from a black family. And the black community? They don’t trust healthcare, they don’t trust insurance, none of it. Now, my fiancé’s [immediate] family is fine as long as insurance goes, but a lot of his [extended] family members will just let things go and go and go because they can’t really afford it. So I think MDsave is just a great opportunity for them, and for people who just need help affording their care. And if I wanted to help one of his cousins get a procedure or something, I can do that with MDsave. I don’t have much money, but I could make it work by using this option.”

“It’s Simply Fantastic.”

“As a former nurse, having worked in healthcare and everything before, I just think that [MDsave] is one of those things that I'm like, ‘Why didn't I think of that?!’ You know, I could be rich right now if I started a company like this, because I’d always wished we had something like this. When I was working in hospice and people were dying, I just wish they’d had this option. It's simply fantastic. I recommend everyone check it out.”