Achieving Price Transparency Resolutions for 2015

 
With just two months left in 2015, we decided to cycle back and check out our 2015 Resolutions to see how well we’ve done at reaching our goals. We know that at the beginning of the year, it can be so easy to set goals and confidently promise to keep them, but we promised our patients, providers and ourselves to grow and we want to come through on those promises.
Resolution #1: We have great traction in some of the country’s states with the highest uninsured rates (Florida and California), we’ve attracted providers in rural areas (ex: Kearney, Nebraska) and even large metro markets (ex: New York City, Los Angeles) but we are not finished yet. We want to break into states where we currently don’t have providers and add even more in the areas with great coverage so patients have OPTIONS.
UPDATE: We’re proud to say that we broke into a number of new markets including Texas and Illinois. These are two areas where we had only a few providers earlier this year and now, we’re helping hundreds of patients each month to find MRI costs and affordable options for other diagnostic imaging procedures.
Resolution #2: We started in Radiology because it has the most price shopped medical procedures, but we recognize that patients deserve price transparency in other health care niches too. This is why we are hoping to add surgical procedures to the site in 2015. Save On Medical will then work towards getting pricing for ambulatory surgery centers across the U.S.
UDPATE: As of August, we added the ability to request prices for surgery procedures to Save On Medical. Patients in every state can find locations close to them and make price inquiries. Soon, we are expecting to have a large group of surgery center chains joining our network as Save On Medical providers at which point, patients will be able to see self-pay surery prices. We are also adding the ability to get prices for pharmacy and lab services, which means patients can find prices for lab work and find out where they can get affordable drugs.
Resolution #3:  Our website is a great tool for uninsured patients or patients shopping around comparing prices for a procedure their insurance won’t cover. We want Save On Medical to be a solution for patients with insurance too though. Wouldn’t it be great to see how much you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket with your insurance versus a self-pay rate? Better yet, if you can go through your insurance, if we could help you submit your payment to insurance with just one click? In 2015, Save On Medical will make that a reality.
UPDATE: This is probably one of our most exciting new directions. We are about to launch Save On Medical’s TruCost™ component which will enable us to show patients how much they will owe for a certain medical procedure whether they pay for it completely out-of-pocket OR with their insurance. We are able to marry the patient’s eligibility with the providers’ agreed upon rates and allowables to show real prices and still collect the patient’s payment online before the appointment.  We’ve gone beyond just self pay MRI prices.
Resolution #4: We built Save On Medical for patients AND providers, so we want to continue to improve our website so that it’s a better tool for physicians. Imagine how easy it would be for a doctor to refer a patient to a specialist through a seamless app in which the patient could pick which provider they want to see.  We’ll be working towards that goal as well.
UPDATE: We have decided against developing a Save On Medical appliation for now because we decided it wouldn’t be something our end-users (patients) would be using regualrly enough. Instead, we changed the look of our website to make it responsive on mobile-devices so patients and providers alike can use Save On Medical from their smartphones, tablets etc. 

We are proud of how far Save On Medical has come in the last 10 months and we will certainly be closing out 2015 strong. We’ve doubled the amount of patients using the website to shop for medical procedures, reached new communities across the country and we are excited to continue to grow and help people find affordable medical care.