The rising cost of healthcare, the growing number of high deductible health plans and the increase of out-of-pocket expenses has led to concerns about healthcare costs for both patients and physicians. Furthering this issue, patients are not often aware that lower cost options for imaging tests and procedures (i.e. MRIs, CT Scans, Mammography’s, PET Scans, etc.) exist aside from recommendations that are given by their doctors at the point-of-care.
Currently, when physicians order an imaging procedure, most patients have little knowledge of the costs ahead of time. In fact, until recently, it has been assumed by most industry experts that insurance company health plans had the best network AND the best negotiated prices. The truth is that market conditions have changed, and our expert team at MediXall has confirmed that this is not always true, and in fact it is seldom true. This is due in part to both the lack of price transparency and ability to have dynamic pricing.
Hundreds of billions of dollars are overspent in the U.S. healthcare system every year because patients don’t understand that they have options. Vetting a service such as an MRI, CT Scan, PET scan or mammogram can allow a patient to receive equal or higher quality care at a drastically lower cost. By educating patients on their options and empowering them to make smarter decisions, billions in bloated charges stand to be removed from the healthcare ecosystem.
According to one 2013 study conducted by Castlight (whose solution only targets employers), the cost of an ankle MRI can range from $400 to $1,861 within the same city. Price variances of these magnitudes are ubiquitous across almost every area of healthcare and data attesting to such is widely available.
Rampant discrepancies not only prove deeply indebting to patients, but also constitute a key contributor to the exponentially increasing inefficiency of the American healthcare system. In addition, research has shown that when patients and physicians discuss the cost of options, both parties report higher satisfaction and efficacy and patients are more likely to engage in preventative medicine and to turn to their primary care physician before illnesses become acute. Involving patients in shared decision-making has been shown to increase patient engagement, trust in the patient-physician relationship, and a patient’s reporting of symptom resolution and quality of care.
From an institutional perspective, the Healthcare Financial Management Association has reported that sharing information about the cost of treatment before services are rendered is the first step in improving the rate at which patients pay for their medicals bills on time and in full.
That’s where we come in. MediXall’s ultimate goal is to make the healthcare process more consumer focused through transparency, personalization and simplicity.
We developed our Referral Program to serve as a tool for doctors to enable their patients to discover more cost-effective and convenient options in their healthcare. Providers can now decrease their patients’ out-of-pocket expenses, streamline referrals, and improve the patient-physician relationship by facilitating transparency about cost and value, resulting in more patient loyalty for their practice. In fact, when doctors have a cash-paying or high deductible patient in need of any imaging procedure, they can help them save 50% to 80% by directing them to MediXall.com.
In a world empowered by price transparency, realtime, patient centered decision making at the time of care, electronic ordering, and roundtrip patient monitoring and reminders, we believe MediXall can remove the complexity, decision fatigue, and confusion facing the average patient every day in the U.S. health care system. Whether a patient or provider knowingly uses MediXall.com or not, we are positioning MediXall.com to become the standard of care for ordering better value, more affordable health care services across types of procedures and the nation for years to come.
