Frequently Asked Questions

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Answers to Common Questions asked about Patient Deals

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  • Why was Patient Deals created?
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    • The founders of Patient Deals recognized that medical care doesn't have to be convoluted or expensive for the uninsured. It can be, and should be, viewed as a purchasable service like going to a mechanic. So Patient Deals was created to act as the portal for physicians and patients to connect via the internet.
  • What does Patient Deals do for the patient?
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    • Providers will post ads on the Patient Deals website and offer discounts or special incentives to buy their services in order to gain the business of cash-paying customers.
    • Most physicians already provide discounted prices to patients with no insurance, although the patients are generally charged at the billing price and not on what doctors normally receive from negotiated insurance contracts. An initiative of Patient Deals is to have cash-paying patients be courted by saavy doctors looking to gain an immediate cash-payment for a resaonable price.
  • What does Patient Deals do for the doctor/provider?
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    • Patient Deals will act as a virtual hub for doctors to gain access to the 47 million Americans that have no insurance, but still need medical care. Providers will receive cash payments at the time the services are rendered, thereby eliminating the need for filing claims to large, bureaucratic corporations.
    • Medical providers may seek cash-paying customers for a variety of situations, including but not limited to:
      1. Medical provider needs to fill a specific time slot on a specific day that is usually a down-time. This provides the Medical Provider with a cash-paying customer (cash in hand) for a time slot that is usually unfilled. The cash-paying customer is happy because he received a medical procedure for much less than he would have paid had he not used Patient Deals.
      2. Medical provider would like to run a special rate for cash-paying customers during a specific month that is usually slow for those types of procedures. This provides the Medical Provider with a cash-paying customer during a normally slow month, thus delivering cash in hand and no administrative hassles of filing an insurance claim with the insurance company. Again, the cash-paying customer is happy because they received a medical procedure for much less than she would have paid had they not used Patient Deals.
      3. Lower administrative costs and hassles with no insurance pre-approvals.
      4. No rejected invoices from improperly coding a diagnosis code.
  • Who are these uninsured?
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    • The majority of the uninsured are working and responsible citizens who may not qualify for government programs or don't want the negative stigma associated with government funded solutions. The U.S. Census Bureau defines "no health insurance" as lacking any type of health insurance -- including a health insurance plan through your job or union, or coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, the military, or state government programs -- for the entire year. People who had any type of health insurance for any part of 2006 were considered to have health insurance in 2006.
  • What does "cash-pay" mean?
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    • When a patient does not have insurance, or the insurance deductibles are too high, a patient can pay with cash, check, money order, and in many cases - credit and debit cards.
    • It should be noted that cash-pay refers to the full payment (most likely discounted due to finding the deal on PatientDeals.org) for the procedure(s) or service(s) received (i.e. not the insurance co-pay).
  • Does Patient Deals charge a membership fee to use their services?
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    • No. The use of the Patient Deals service is free.
    • A major initiative of Patient Deals is to establish a community that becomes more involved about the current state of health care, specifically in America, in order to provide a solution to the looming health care crisis. The easiest way to spread that information is to make it freely available.
  • What is concierge medicine?
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    • Concierge Medicine refers to the general practice of physicians that charge patients directly. These physicians do not accept insurance, which allows them to practice medicine without the hassle of dealing with insurance claim guidelines. There is a monthly fee for their services, much like higher insurance premiums, but they typically don't have as many patients so they can spend more time with each patient.
    • This method is not a good option for the younger crowd who is healthy most of the time, nor does this model benefit those who cannot afford its costs.
  • What are HSA's?
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    • HSA stands for Health Savings Account. This is typically an account created for individuals who are covered under high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to save for medical expenses that HDHPs do not cover. Contributions are made into the account by the individual or the individual's employer and are limited to a maximum amount each year. The contributions are invested over time and can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses, which include most medical care, such as dental, vision, and over-the-counter drugs.
  • What is Medical Tourism?
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    • Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is a term to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain medical services.
    • Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries. The provider and customer use informal channels of communication-connection-contract, with less regulatory or legal oversight to assure quality and less formal recourse to reimbursement or redress, if needed.
    • Leisure aspects typically associated with travel and tourism may be included on such medical travel trips.
    • From Wikipedia.org »
  • Does Patient Deals schedule appointments?
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    • No. Patient Deals simply provides the connection between uninsured, cash-paying customers, to medical providers in search of cash-paying customers. The result is a win-win because neither side is forced to deal with a large, bureaucratic corporation to pay for services provided, sometimes, up to three months later.