AMITA Health and “a fairly sizable number” of its physicians have joined an online marketplace that allows consumers paying out of pocket to shop for discounts on services such as diagnostic imaging and colonoscopies, according to Thor Thordarson, AMITA Health executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Initial services offered by the system through MDsave.com included imaging and laboratory at AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center GlenOaks, AMITA Health Adventist Medical Center Bolingbrook and the AMITA Health outpatient center in Mount Prospect.Today, imaging services are offered at Schaumburg, Addison and Plainfield, and laboratory services are offered in GlenOaks, Schaumburg and Addison.
“This is all part of the ‘retail-ization’ of certain parts of health care,” Thordarson said. “We need to be competing in this space, because that is where the market is heading. It also is consistent with our mission. We cannot extend our healing ministry without being affordable to as many people as possible i n our market.”
MDsave.com is aimed at consumers electing to pay cash for services, either because they are uninsured or enrolled in a high-deductible health insurance plan. MDsave.com enables consumers to shop for specific services, compare pricing, make a purchase, and receive a voucher they can present to their selected provider or facility. Consumers pay a single, bundled price that covers every facet of a service, including all hospital and physician costs. “It’s all-inclusive,” Thordarson said.
growing demand from physicians, associates, patients and other community members for affordable pricing and simplified billing, Thordarson said.
AMITA Health has contracted with applicable physicians such as radiologists and gastroenterologists for discounted price bundles for the initial services offered by the system through MDsave.com, Thordarson said. “A fairly sizable number of physicians have signed up,” he said. “Everybody is excited to see this effort work out. Hopefully, it will be very successful.” Both radiology groups in AMITA Health’s legacy Alexian facilities have agreed to participate in MDsave.com, said Michael Racenstein, M.D., F.A.C.R., chairman of the radiology department at AMITA Health Alexian Brothers Medical Center Elk Grove Village. “We understand the need to become more competitive in the market,” he said. “It means for us that we may take less on our reimbursement side, but I’d rather take less than take zero. These are patients who might not otherwise walk in our doors if we don’t create a value proposition for them.”
The system can offer discounted pricing because consumers pay cash up front, which reduces overhead expenses related to collecting payments, Thordarson said. MDsave.com pays all providers involved in a bundled service within seven days, and patients are responsible for submitting claims to their insurer.
“Our physicians have told us we need to have an option for price-sensitive patients that is more price-competitive and more user-friendly in terms of providing just one bill, but that still allows them to receive a reasonable fee for their services,” Thordarson said. “This option meets all of those criteria.”
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